Dr. Bart Rypma
- Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology
- Meadows Foundation Chair in Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Rypma’s expertise in nuclear imaging and advanced research using functional magnetic resonance imaging has attracted funding from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Neuroscience isn’t something you can do in a small way. It has to be done big, and it has to be done right. This is the vision at UT Dallas, the Center for BrainHealth and UT Southwestern Medical Center.”
Dr. Bart Rypma is an expert on how neurovasculature couples with cognition, or, in other words, how blood flow in the brain changes as a result of thought. This complicated science examines the two-way interaction between the cells in the brain and the veins and arteries that deliver blood and resources to them.
His work has led him to split his time between The University of Texas at Dallas, the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth and UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where he also serves as an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry. As the faculty liaison, Rypma encourages collaborations among researchers at UT Southwestern and at UT Dallas.
In striving to contribute work that can be translated to help improve healthy living, Rypma has advanced the study of aging, mild cognitive impairment, multiple sclerosis and Gulf War Illness. His research has earned him the Vin and Caren Prothro Foundation Award, Busch Biomedical Sciences Research Award, Johnson & Johnson Pioneers in Science Award, and the Siemens Award for Innovative Technology Research.
“I aspire to be able to say, ‘I’ve left behind a body of work that people find useful, that makes a contribution and pushes the field ahead’ – just by the virtue of its quality and relevance,” Rypma said.
Rypma graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from New York University before receiving his master’s degree in the same field from Duke University. He earned a doctorate in psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology and served in post-doctoral research positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University. Before joining UT Dallas in 2006 as an associate professor, Rypma was an assistant professor at Rutgers University.