Thomas Piasecki, PhD

Dr. Thomas Piasecki conducts research focused on motivational processes related to tobacco and alcohol use (e.g., tobacco withdrawal, craving, subjective reward, negative reinforcement). Much of his research uses electronic diary methods to investigate the relations among contextual features, subjective experiences, and drug use in users’ natural environments. He is especially interested in using these intensive longitudinal methods to understand the process of relapse to smoking. Piasecki has interests in the measurement of drug-related individual differences, including tobacco dependence, level of response to alcohol, and motives for tobacco and alcohol use. Additionally, he also uses behavior genetic methods to investigate genetic and environmental contributions to addiction-related phenotypes.

Piasecki received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992 and his doctoral degree in experimental psychopathology research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999. He was a postdoctoral fellow at UW-CTRI and the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1999-2000. Dr. Piasecki was a faculty member in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri from 2000 to 2021, attaining the rank of Professor in 2012.

Piasecki is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science and the recipient of research awards from the American Psychological Association, the Society for Nicotine and Tobacco Research, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. He is currently Associate Editor of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, a past Associate Editor of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, and a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.