MD Anderson UTHealth Houston Graduate School faculty member Anthony A. Wright, PhD, has been appointed as professor emeritus at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. He was recognized by the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at McGovern Medical School for his distinguished 50-year career and retirement on June 30, 2022. 

Wright, an internationally-renowned, award-winning neuroscientist, has been part of the GSBS faculty since 1996 and is affiliated with the Programs in Neuroscience. He has made many distinguished and major contributions to the academic mission of our institution, which have enhanced our institution’s national and international recognition.

At McGovern Medical School, Wright established a vibrant research program to study how memories are formed, stored, and recalled, as well as if the neural basis of cognition is conserved during the evaluation of species. He and his colleagues designed clever cognitive tests that could be used to assess memory recall in different species. He is the first researcher to use a list of visual items (travel slides for animals and kaleidoscope patterns for humans) to test memory function, referred to as serial-position function, in pigeons, non-human primates and humans to explore evolution of cognition.

Throughout his career, Wright has published over 100 research articles in high-impact journals in the field of cognitive neuroscience. He has contributed 30 book chapters and has presented numerous scientific abstracts in national and international meetings. In addition to being a productive investigator, he has served on many editorial boards and multiple grant-review panels.  He has been a member of multiple scientific societies and has graciously donated his time by serving on various institutional committees. He has trained many graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who have gone on to establish their own research programs at various universities within the United States and abroad.