- Professor Emeritus
- Integrative Physiology & Neuroscience
Biography
Robert C. Ritter, Professor, earned the B.S. in biology at Valparaiso University in 1967, the V.M.D. degree in veterinary medicine from University of Pennsylvania in 1971 and the PhD in Biology/Neuroscience from University of Pennsylvania in 1974. He joined the WSU faculty in 1974. Dr. Ritter is a former NIH Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator and has been a visiting Professor of Gastroenterology at the London Hospital Medical School, London England and Visiting Professor of Physiology at Flinders University Medical School, Adelaide S. Australia. He was elected to Washington State Academy of Science in 2013 and president elect for the Society for Study of Ingestive Behavior in 2016.
Department Affiliations
- Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience
Research
My long-standing research interests are in the neural mechanisms that control food intake and body weight. NIH-funded efforts in my laboratory focus on satiation signals that arise from the gastrointestinal tract and arrive in the CNS via vagal sensory neurons. Current research specifically pertains to the role of hindbrain neurotransmitter and neuropeptide receptors in modulating and integrating satiation signals and on hindbrain neuroplastic changes that contribute to control of food intake and body weight.
Publications