KINGSTON, R.I. – December 28, 2021 – A University of Rhode Island scientist has been named deputy executive editor of Alzheimer’s & Dementia®: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. Peter Snyder, Ph.D., URI vice president for research and economic development and professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, assumed the role this month. Snyder has served as senior associate editor for the journal since its inception.

Alzheimer’s & Dementia is the leading peer-reviewed, monthly journal in Alzheimer’s and dementia research. Launched in 2005, the publication has contributed significantly to the field of Alzheimer’s research and is now considered one of the top-ranked journals in the world in the broad field of clinical neuroscience. Zaven Khachaturian, Ph.D., widely considered the “father of modern-day Alzheimer’s research,” serves as its editor-in-chief.

In addition to his role with Alzheimer’s & Dementia, Snyder helped to launch Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, an open access journal of the Alzheimer’s Association in 2015, serving as its founding editor-in-chief before stepping down in December. Snyder will remain on as an editor.

“Dr. Snyder is an internationally renowned and widely-respected expert in the field of Alzheimer’s disease. He both launched and led the open access journal of the Alzheimer’s Association for the past eight years and has been active on the senior editorial team of Alzheimer’s & Dementia since its inception,” said Khachaturian. “With his new role I look forward to working with him to identify the important areas of new emphasis for the field and for the journal. Our journal is the most highly cited publication in our field, and with his promotion on the editorial board Dr. Snyder will continue to creatively impact the growth of our field.”

As deputy executive editor of Alzheimer’s & Dementia, Snyder will work closely with both Editor-in-Chief Khachaturian, as well as the journal’s executive editor, Ara S. Khachaturian, Ph.D., to help craft the strategic vision of the journal.

“This is a very exciting time to be asked to fulfill this role. As a field, we have come a long way very fast. We know much more now than we did just five or six years ago,” said Snyder. “I look forward to the opportunity to continue to work with this group of extremely talented, well-respected leaders to push the field further by identifying and exploring areas of debate and current gaps in the field as well as bringing a more international perspective to the journal in the interest of advancing the science. This has been a labor of love for me.”

A highly productive and accomplished researcher in his own right, Snyder publishes regularly within this field in addition to managing a robust research program at the University of Rhode Island. He has delivered more than 200 presentations at international scientific conferences.

Currently, Snyder is a principal investigator, along with Stuart Sinoff, M.D., medical director of Neurosciences for BayCare Health System in Florida, on the Atlas of Retinal Imaging in Alzheimer’s Study, a clinical trial of retinal screening processes. The five-year study, taking place in collaboration with BayCare Health System in Florida and The Memory and Aging Program at Butler Hospital in Rhode Island, could help clinicians detect Alzheimer’s disease decades before patients begin to reveal clinical symptoms.

Snyder earned his doctorate in clinical neuropsychology and behavioral neuroscience from Michigan State University in 1992, following a residency at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center (New York, USA). He was awarded the 1992 Wilder Penfield Fellowship by the American Epilepsy Society and the Epilepsy Foundation of America, and served as a Clinical Neurosciences Fellow in the National Institutes of Mental Health Clinical Research Center for the Study of Schizophrenia at Hillside Hospital (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) in 1992 and 1993.

Snyder also serves as an adjunct professor of neurology and ophthalmology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and as a Scholar-in-Residence at the Rhode Island School of Design.