Rate My Professor Cliff Abraham

Professor Cliff Abraham is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Division of Sciences, at the University of Otago. He holds a BA with Distinction in Psychology from the University of Virginia and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Florida. After completing five years of postdoctoral research at the University of Otago and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, he took up a lectureship in Psychology at Otago. He chaired the Department of Psychology from 2003 to 2005 and has played a leading role in promoting neuroscience research and teaching at the University of Otago. Nationally, he chaired the Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research, New Zealand's annual neuroscience meeting in Queenstown, for 12 years. Currently, he is Co-Director of Brain Research New Zealand - Rangahau Roro Aotearoa, Director of the Brain Health Research Centre, and Director of a major Health Research Council-funded programme investigating biomarkers and therapeutic agents for Alzheimer's disease.

Abraham's research specializations include the neural mechanisms of memory, synaptic plasticity and metaplasticity, long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) in the hippocampus, gene expression in plasticity maintenance, and disruptions in Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. His academic interests encompass factors influencing plasticity induction such as intracellular calcium, stress hormones, aging, and neurotransmitters, as well as neurogenesis and neuroprotection. Key publications include 'Metaplasticity: Tuning synapses and networks for plasticity' (Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2008); 'Lentivirus-mediated expression of human secreted amyloid precursor protein-alpha promotes long-term induction of neuroprotective genes and pathways in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease' (Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 2021); 'Postsynaptic cell firing triggers bidirectional metaplasticity depending on the LTP induction protocol' (Journal of Neurophysiology, 2021); 'Secreted amyloid precursor protein-alpha enhances LTP through the synthesis and trafficking of Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptors' (Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 2021); and 'Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II mediates group I metabotropic glutamate receptor-dependent protein synthesis and long-term depression in rat hippocampus' (Journal of Neuroscience, 2011). Abraham has received major awards including election as a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi (1997), James Cook Fellowship (2007), University of Otago Distinguished Research Medal (2009), Division of Sciences Researcher of the Year (2018), Marsden Medal (2022), and Rutherford Medal (2025).