Dr. Lopez earned his bachelors degree in psychology from The University of Texas at Austin, where he worked for 4 years in the research laboratory of Abram Amsel, one of the leading behaviorist theorists in the world.  He completed an honors project in Dr. Amsels lab studying the Pavlovian conditioning of the orienting response in very young rats. 

Dr. Lopez earned a master of science and doctoral degree in experimental physiological psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington, under the guidance of Verne C. Cox.  His graduate research studied the role of supraspinal neural pathways in mediating analgesia for tonic pain.  The work that Dr. Lopez did at UT Arlington has served as the foundation for several prolific programs of research investigating the nature of pain, work which continues to this day.  Following his graduate studies, Dr. Lopez worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, working in the area of pharmacology.  His work there was concerned with understanding the role of serotonin in mediating depression and anxiety. 

Dr Lopez left academia in 1997 to pursue other opportunities.  Currently, he is a Manager and Senior Curriculum Architect with the IBM Data & Artificial Intelligence group. His primary job is to manage the creation of certification programs and curriculum development for data science and artificial intelligence.  Prior to working at IBM, Dr. Lopez worked in the non-profit sector, was a managing consultant with IBM Global Services, a consultant with EDS, and technology director for a couple of dotcoms. While working for these companies, Dr. Lopez worked on a very wide variety of projects with many different clients throughout the world.

Dr. Lopez was raised in Crystal City, Texas and currently lives in San Antonio with his wife and two children.

 

My two greatest influences in my career in psychology:

Dr. Verne C. Cox UT Arlington		Dr. Abram Amsel UT Austin

Degrees

• Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, University of Texas at Arlington (1993)
• M.S. in Experimental Psychology, University of Texas at Arlington (1992)
• B.A. in Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin (1986)

Research in Progress

• Behavioral neuroscience
• Computer-mediated interactions
• Virtual communities
• Artificial intelligence
• Ethics

Publications

• Daws, L., Lopez, R., Frazer, A. (1998). Effects of antidepressant treatment on inhibitory avoidance behavior and amygdaloid beta-adrenoceptors in rats. Neuropsychopharmacology, 19, 300-313.
• Lopez, R., Cox, V.C. (1992). Analgesia for tonic pain by self-administered lateral hypothalamic stimulation. Neuroreport, 3, 311-314.
• Lopez, R., Young, S.L., Cox, V.C. (1991). Analgesia for formalin-induced pain by lateral hypothalamic stimulation. Brain Research, 511, 1-6.
• Lopez, R., Frazer, A., (1996). Modulation of ultrasonic vocalizations by serotonin-1A agonists and antagonists in young male Wistar rats. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, November 17, 1996.
• Lopez, S.G.., Lopez, R. (2007). Inferential accuracy and interaction quality in dyadic, online interactions.  Paper presented at the 2007 Annual Conference of the Association for Psychological Science, May 25, 2007.