Eric Klann

Eric Klann was chosen as the winner of 38th annual Butler Senior High School Distinguished Graduate Award by the Class of 2017.

A 1980 graduate of Butler High, Klann graduated from Gannon University in 1984 with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry. He attended the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth and earned his doctorate in biochemistry in 1989. During his doctoral studies, Klann’s research resulted in five publications in scientific journals.

Baylor’s College of Medicine’s Neuroscience Department brought Klann in for a post-doctoral fellowship during which he published eleven more articles and made important findings related to aspects of the cellular and molecular basis of learning and memory in the brain’s hippocampus region.

In 1994, Klann was recruited to the University of Pittsburgh’s Neuroscience Department, where he made further fundamental discoveries related to the biology of memory. He returned to Baylor in 2001 first as an associate professor and then as a full professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics.

His work expanded into the areas of how memory is altered by aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and autism. In 2006, Klann moved to New York University’s Center for Neural Science where he continues his work.

Klann has published more than 90 research articles and has contributed to numerous books on the molecular basis of memory and how it is altered in people with brain disorders.

He has lectured worldwide and has developed courses for graduate study. He has also held chairs on editorial boards for eight medical scientific journals.