Asaf Keller, PhD Investiture Ceremony Program

ASAF KELLER, PHD
Asaf Keller, PhD was born in Israel but spent
most of the first 13 years of his life in West
Africa and Thailand, where his father worked
for a construction company. After graduating
from high school in Haifa, Israel, he completed a
mandatory, three year military service. Dr.
Keller joined the MD/PhD program at Ben
Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel. It was
there that he began his research in the
neurosciences with his mentor, Professor E.L.
White. His PhD dissertation research used
quantitative ultrastructural analyses to show
that—contrary to the prevailing dogma—brain
cells form highly specific connections with their
neighbors, and with cells in other brain regions.
Dr. Keller took an (indefinite) leave of absence from medical school to accept a
postdoctoral fellowship with Professor H. Asanuma at The Rockefeller University in
New York City. He received training in electrophysiology, which he combined with
his anatomical skills to show that learning of motor skills depends on strengthening
existing connections between brain cells, as well as the formation of specific, new
synapses.
Dr. Keller established an independent laboratory at the Uniformed Services Medical
School in Bethesda, MD where he continued his studies on learning-related changes
in connections and activity of specific brain cells. In 1995 he joined the Department
of Anatomy & Neurobiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He
was promoted to full professor in 2001, became interim chair of the department in
2019, and permanent chair in 2021. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Mathematics
and Statistics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His current research
program focuses on how brain circuits responsible for sensory perception are
affected by drug exposure and pain conditions. His team described changes in brain
circuits that lead to chronic pain, as well as brain circuits that can modulate the
perception of pain. Dr. Keller's team is working on harnessing this knowledge to
relieve chronic pain conditions. They also demonstrated that exposure to drugs, such
as marijuana or opioids, in the womb or in adolescence—both critical periods for
brain development—can lead to lasting, irreversible changes in brain function and
behavior. The work focuses on learning how to prevent these devastating, lasting
neurological and psychiatric deficits. Dr. Keller's research has been and continues to
be funded by the National Instituted of Health.
Dr. Keller is dedicated to mentoring young scientists at all levels of their career. To
date, he has trained 9 high-school students, 17 college undergraduates, 23 graduate
students, 15 postdoctoral fellows, and many new faculty members. He was the
director of graduate education for the Program in Neuroscience, and the director of
the program's NIH-funded Cellular and Integrative Neurosciences Training Program.
Dr. Keller is the recipient of the Dr. Patricia Sokolove Outstanding Mentor Award
from University of Maryland Graduate School, and several Best Mentor and Best
Lecturer Awards from the Program in Neuroscience.

WELCOME
Mary Pooton
Associate Dean for Development
University of Maryland School of Medicine
James Kaper, PhD
The James and Carolyn Frenkil Distinguished Dean’s Professor
Vice Dean for Academic Affairs
Chair, Department of Microbiology & Immunology
University of Maryland School of Medicine
REMARKS
Mark T. Gladwin, MD
Vice President for Medical Affairs, UM Baltimore
John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and
Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine
DONOR RECOGNITION
Mark T. Gladwin, MD
SPEAKERS
Yavin Shaham, PhD
Chief, Behavioral Neuroscience Research Branch
National Institute on Drug Abuse
National Institute of Health
Margaret McCarthy, PhD
The James and Carolyn Frenkil Dean’s Professor and Chair,
Department of Pharmacology
Director, Program in Neuroscience
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Jason Alipio, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School,
Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Regenerative Medicine
Michal Keller
Asaf Keller’s Sister
MEDAL PRESENTATION
Mark T. Gladwin, MD
REMARKS
Asaf Keller, PhD
The Donald E. Wilson, MD, MACP Distinguished Professor
Chair of the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology
University of Maryland School of Medicine
CLOSING REMARKS
James Kaper, PhD

T
he first endowed professorships were established more than
500 years ago with the creation of the Lady Margaret chairs
in divinity at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. The
original endowed chairs were sponsored by Lady Margaret,
countess of Richmond, and grandmother of Henry VIII in 1502.
Subsequently, private individuals began making financial contributions
to establish other endowed professorships and chairs such as the
Lucasian Chair of Mathematics, which Sir Isaac Newton held
beginning in 1669. Professor Stephen Hawking, the internationally
renowned physicist and recipient of the 2010 US Medal of Freedom,
was another prominent holder of this endowed chair.
The honor associated with appointment to an endowed position has
remained unchanged for the last 500 years and is recognized as one of
the highest tributes that an academic institution can bestow upon its
most distinguished faculty. These endowed professorships and chairs
continue to reward exceptional scholars uninterrupted to the present
time.
The Office of Development is charged with securing private gifts to
ensure the School’s tradition of excellence is sustained through robust
research, clinical, and educational programs and initiatives. The
University of Maryland School of Medicine is fortunate to have nearly
85 endowed chairs & professorships in various stages of completion
and held by esteemed faculty members.

DONALD E. WILSON, MD, MACP
Donald E. Wilson, MD, MACP was Senior Vice
President for Health Sciences at Howard University from
August 2007 until December 2009 when he retired for the
second time. Dr. Wilson was dean of the University Of
Maryland School Of Medicine from September 1991 until
his retirement in September 2006. He was the nation's first
African-American dean of an accredited non-minority
medical school. In addition to serving as dean, Dr. Wilson
became the University of Maryland's first Vice-President
for Medical Affairs in 1999. During his tenure the student
body became more diverse, the number of minority faculty
nearly tripled and external research funding more than
quadrupled moving the medical school into the top 10%
nationally of public medical schools in research funding.
Dr. Wilson came to Maryland after 11 years as professor
and chairman of the department of medicine, State University of New York Health Science Center at
Brooklyn. He was physician-in-chief at the University Hospital and Kings County Hospital Center in
Brooklyn. He completed his undergraduate education at Harvard University, received his medical
degree from Tufts University, and has received Honorary Degrees of Doctor of Science from the
University of Maryland, Baltimore, Tufts University and SUNY Health Science Center in Brooklyn,
NY. He is board certified in gastroenterology and internal medicine.
Dr. Wilson has chaired several federal committees including, the National Institutes of Health's (NIH)
Digestive Diseases Advisory Board, the Food and Drug Administration's Gastroenterology Drugs
Advisory Committee, and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (DHHS) Advisory Council.
He is past chairman of the board of directors of the Association of American Medical Colleges
(AAMC) and the AAMC Council of Deans of US medical schools. He is the first African-American to
hold each of these positions. He is a member of several medical/research societies, including the
National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine), the Association of American
Physicians and the American Clinical and Climatological Association. Dr. Wilson co-founded the
Association for Academic Minority Physicians in 1986- an organization dedicated to increasing he
diversity of our nation’s biomedical and bio-scientific work forces.
He has received numerous awards and honors. He served on the medical honors society, Alpha Omega
Alpha’s national board of directors 2002-2011, and was its vice-president 2004-2011. In 2000 Dr.
Wilson received the AAMC’s first Herbert Nickens Award, promoting equality and justice in medicine.
Dr. Wilson continues to be engaged and currently has served as the principle investigator of a NIH P 20
award as well a sub-award through the National Research Mentoring Network- an award designed to
help increase the diversity of the nation’s bio-scientific and biomedical workforces. In 2022 Dr. Wilson
received the American Heart Association’s Watkins-Saunders Award. He also has over 200
publications in the fields of internal medicine, gastroenterology, health care and medical education.

The Donald E. Wilson, MD, MACP Distinguished Professorship
was made possible through the generosity of many friends,
colleagues, trainees, and organizations
in honor of Dr. Donald E. Wilson including:
Association of American Medical Colleges
Dr. Claudia R. Baquet
Dr. Stephen T. Bartlett
Mr. David M. Blanken and Mrs. Barbara Friedman
Dr. Meredith Bond
Dr. Luther T. Clark
Dr. Charles H. Epps, Jr. and Mrs. Roselyn P. Epps
Dr. David R. Gens
HSCB Foundation, Inc.
Mr. Gregory F. Handlir
Dr. L. Julian Haywood
Dr. Stephan L. Kamholz
Dr. Anthony F. Lehman
M & T Bank
Maryland Medical Center Insurance Program
Dr. James E. McNamee and Mrs. Susan O. McNamee
Dr. Vincent D. Pellegrini , Jr.
Dr. Mildred E. Phillips
Dr. Mary M. Rodgers, Professor Emerita
Dr. Thomas M. Scalea
Dr. David L. Stewart
Dr. Donald E. Wilson and Mrs. Patricia C. Wilson