Ovide F. Pomerleau

He is best known for his work on self-management problems and addiction, focusing on the behavioral, biological, and genetic bases of tobacco smoking and nicotine dependence.

In 1971 he completed postdoctoral training in clinical psychology at Temple University, where he worked with Philip H. Bobrove and Louis C. Harris.

From 1972 to 1979, Pomerleau served on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania Department of Psychiatry, where he and John Paul Brady founded the Center for Behavioral Medicine in 1973 [1] to develop interventions for weight management and the treatment of smoking and problem drinking, chronic behaviors associated with diminished quality of life, decreased longevity, and pathophysiology.

[3] In 1979, Pomerleau joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut Department of Psychiatry, where he collaborated with L. Everett Seyler to demonstrate and quantitate, at the human level, the release of beta-endorphin and other hypophyseal hormones in response to nicotine administration.

[5] From 1985 until his retirement in 2009, Pomerleau served on the faculty of the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry and ran the University of Michigan Nicotine Research Laboratory, which conducted research on the subjective, physiological, and biochemical effects of smoking, and on the effects of pharmacological probes and laboratory stressors on measures of nicotine intake and withdrawal.