Research Scientist, Department of Veterans Affairs
Associate Professor, University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine
Pat Ronan is a Research Scientist at the Sioux Falls VA and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Division of Basic Biomedical Sciences at the Sanford USD School of Medicine. He received his BA in Psychology from Earlham College and did graduate work at the University of Minnesota and University of South Dakota where he received his Masters and Ph.D. in Biology and Neuroscience. He did his postdoctoral fellowships at the Dallas VA and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Dr. Ronan has a long-standing interest in the neurobiology and treatment of a wide range of psychiatric disorders including PTSD and addiction. His work has focused on understanding fundamental mechanisms underlying these disorders to identify and test potential therapeutic targets and novel non-pharmaceutical treatment strategies. Dr. Ronan has in recent years pursued his interest in translational clinical research. He was awarded a prestigious three-year VA Advanced Translational Research Fellowship. He is now involved in numerous clinical trials, including serving as the site Principal Investigator at the Sioux Falls VA on a recently funded large NIH clinical study that seeks to gain a better understanding of PTSD and comorbid alcohol abuse to develop more effective treatments. He also has a preclinical VA Merit Award grant to study neuroimmune targets for the treatment of alcoholism. Dr. Ronan has authored over 30 papers and book chapters and has received funding from numerous federal and state agencies, including the VA, NIH, NSF, state of SD, and a number of foundations.