Suchismita Ray, Ph.D.

The Excellence in Research Award, sponsored by the New Jersey Health Foundation, Inc. was awarded to for her outstanding accomplishments in research and scholarship during the 2025 academic year.

Ray has consistently been rewarded with research grants for her work with individuals with opioid and alcohol use disorder, both before and during her time at Rutgers. When she began her tenure at the School of Health Professions in 2018, Ray arrived with an ongoing National Institutes of Health grant that resulted in a groundbreaking study on the use of multivariate analysis to separate individuals with opioid use disorder from healthy individuals based on brain data.

After joining SHP, her impactful research has continued. Ray is the recipient of five Rutgers internal grants, including two SHP Dean’s grants, and one grant from the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, aimed at reducing alcohol and drug use and relapse in the community.

Ray’s achievements in her field were rewarded in September 2024 with the award of two major NIH grants to fund research into the underlying neural mechanisms of addiction.

Ray received a $3.18 million R61/R33 grant to investigate the efficacy of extended release Guanfacine pharmacotherapy and a mindfulness meditation behavioral intervention, both independently and in conjunction, in individuals receiving buprenorphine maintenance for opioid use disorder. The project targets the underlying neural mechanisms to improve stress and reduce opioid cravings to decrease relapse.

In addition, Ray received a $1.38 million R01 grant to study the efficacy of extended release Guanfacine (a drug primarily used for high blood pressure and ADHD) pharmacotherapy in women with alcohol use disorder to determine whether the medication can lessen cravings and improve impulse control in women trying to stop drinking.

This research has the potential to make an exciting impact on the treatment of opioid and alcohol use disorder, as well as reducing the rates of use, relapse and opioid or alcohol-related deaths in the U.S.