Paul Rapp Ph.D

Education

B.S. University of Illinois, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Major: Physiology, Minor; Chemistry
B.S. University of Illinois, College of Engineering, Major: Engineering Physics
Ph.D. Cambridge University, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics

Biography

Paul Rapp attended the University of Illinois as a James Scholar. He received a Bachelors
degree in Physiology (minor in Chemistry, Summa cum Laude) and a second Bachelors degree
in Engineering Physics (Summa cum Laude) in 1972. He then attended Cambridge University as
a Churchill Scholar and received his Ph.D. in 1975. His doctoral work, under the supervision of
Professor Sir James Lighthill, was conducted in the Department of Applied Mathematics and
Theoretical Physics. Following graduation, he was elected to a Fellowship at Gonville and Caius
College, Cambridge University. During this period, he continued teaching in the Faculty of
Mathematics and performed combined theoretical and experimental work in collaboration with
Professor Sir Michael Berridge in the Invertebrate Chemistry and Physiology Unit at Cambridge.
This work led to the publication of the calcium-cyclic nucleotide oscillator hypothesis. He joined
the faculty of the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1979.

At present, Rapp is a Professor of Medical and Clinical Psychology at the Uniformed
Services University. Previously he was a Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology at Drexel
University College of Medicine (the successor organization to the Medical College of
Pennsylvania) and Director of Research at the Clinical Research Center at Norristown State
Psychiatric Hospital.

Professor Rapp was a Candidate at the Philadelphia School of Psychoanalysis and has
practiced under supervision as a psychotherapist/psychoanalyst at the Philadelphia Consultation
Center.

He is a past editor of Physica, and has served on the editorial boards of the International
Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, Chaos and Complexity Letters, and Cognitive Neurodynamics.
He now serves on the Editorial Boards of Behavioral Sciences, and Psychiatry International. Past
honors include a Certificate of Commendation from the Central Intelligence Agency for
“significant contributions to the mission of the Office of Research and Development.”

Career Highlights: Positions, Projects, Deployements, Awards and Additional Publications

Edmund James Scholar, University of Illinois, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Edmund James Scholar, University of Illinois, College of Engineering

Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Tau

Churchill Scholar to Cambridge University

Fellow Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Unversity

Certificate of Commendation, Central Intelligence Agency for Significant Contributions to the Mission of the Office of Research and Development

Representative Bibliography

Rapp, P.E. and Gilpin, A.M.K. (2025). Biomarkers in clinical practice: opportunities and challenges. Medical Research Archives (European Society of Medicine) Volume 13, Issue 1, January 2025

Rapp, P.E., Cellucci, C.J., Gilpin, C.E. and Darmon, D.M. (2023). Approximate continuous time measures of information movement in extended complex networks. Computer Sciences and Mathematics Forum. 7: 3.

Kim, S., Adams, J.NM., Chappel-Farley, M.G., Keator, D., Janeck, J., Taylor, L., Mikhail, A., McMillan, L., Rapp, P.E., Michael, M.A. (2023). Examining the diagnostic value of the mnemonic discrimination task for predicting cognition and amyloid-beta status. Neuropsychologica. 191: 108727

Barbosa, D.A.N., Gattas, S., Salgado, J.S., Kuijper, F.M., Wang, A.R., Huang, Y., , B., Leuze, C., Luczak, A., Rapp, P., Malenka, R.C., Miller, K.J., Heifets, B.D., Bohon, C., McNab, J.A., Halpern, C.H. (2023). An orexigenic subnetwork within the human hippocampus. Nature, 621: 381.

Gattas, S., Larson, M.S., Mnatsakanyan, L., Sen-Gupta, I., Vadera, S., Swindlehurst, L., Rapp, P.E., Lin, J.J., and Yassa, M.A. (2023). Theta-mediated hippocampal-neocortical interactions underlie pattern separation in humans. Nature Communications. 14: 8505

Rapp, P.E., Cellucci, C., Darmon, D. and Keyser, D. (2022). Cautionary observations concerning the introduction of psychophysiological biomarkers into neuropsychiatric practice. Psychiatry International 3(2), 181-205. https://doi.org/10.3390/psychiatryint3020015.

Darmon, D., Watanabe, T., Cellucci, C. and Rapp, P.E. (2021). On the operational utility of measures of multichannel EEGs. Entropy, 23,1434.

Killian, J.M., Radin, R.M., Gardner, C.L., Kasuske, L., Bashirelahi, K., Nathan, D., Keyser, D.O., Cellucci, C.J., Darmon, D. and Rapp, P.E. (2021). Alternative devices for heart rate variability measures: a comparative test-retest reliability study. Behavioral Sciences. 11, 68.

Trongnetrpunya, A., Rapp, P.E., Wang, C, Darmon, D., Costanzo, M.E., Nathan, D.E., Roy, M.J., Keyser, D.O. (2019). Single-trial mechanisms underlying changes in averaged P300 ERP amplitude and latency in military service members after combat deployment. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Volume 13, Article 377.