Cliff Abraham
Wickliffe Carson Abraham is a New Zealand neuroscientist and currently Poutoko Taiea Distinguished Professor, University of Otago. He is known for his work on synaptic plasticity and in particular, the phenomenon of "metaplasticity". In 2025, he received the Rutherford Medal (Royal [Society of New Zealand)|Rutherford Medal], the highest award offered by the Royal Society of New Zealand. He was head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago from 2003 to 2005, and served as president of the Australasian Neuroscience Society between 2019 and 2020.
Abraham was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, United States, on 24 September 1954, the son of Stuart B. Abraham and Ida Jeanne Abraham. He was educated at North Hagerstown High School, where he was covaledictorian in 1971. He went on to study at the University of Virginia, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction in psychology. He then completed his PhD at the University of Florida in 1981, supervised by Steven Zornetzer and Don Walker, with a thesis titled An electrophysiological analysis of chronic ethanol effects on synaptic distribution and function in rat hippocampus.
Career
Abraham undertook post-doctoral work at the University of Otago with Graham Goddard, and at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, with Holger Wigström and Bengt Gustafsson in the Department of Physiology. In 1986, he returned to the University of Otago where he took up a lectureship, where he has remained, becoming professor in 1998 and head of department from 2003-2005.
Research
Abraham's work has focused on synaptic plasticity, which is the process by which synapses change in strength following certain types of neural activity. The changes are thought to constitute one of the mechanisms of memory formation/storage. He has particularly explored the molecular mechanisms underlying such changes, which have possible implications for memory disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
Honours and awards
In 1997, Abraham was elected a Fellow of the [Royal Society of New Zealand]. In 2006, he was awarded a James Cook Fellowship by the Royal Society of New Zealand for 2007–2008, and in 2009 he received the University of Otago's Distinguished Research Medal. In 2022, Abraham was awarded the Marsden Medal by the New Zealand Association of Scientists, and in 2025 he received the Royal Society of New Zealand's highest research honour, the Rutherford Medal.
Selected publications
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