Tibor Palfai
In his spare time, Dr. Tibor Palfai sits at his desk on the fifth floor of Huntington Hall browsing through his favorite iPhone application, Drugs.com Medication Guide.
“It tells you everything you ever want to know about drugs,” says Palfai. “I punch in the app and put down the name and I get all the information I ever wanted – dosage, side effects, everything I want to know.”
Though Palfai is arguably one of the most knowledgeable scholars in the field of drugs in the nation, he says there’s always a new one coming out that he needs to know about.
Dr. Tibor Palfai has worked at Syracuse University for 46 years as a professor in the psychology department. His favorite thing about his job is the young people.
“You never get old if you’re with young people every day,” says Palfai. “And you also become quite modern, you move with the age. I know some of my age compatriots are completely lost, but I still know how to use a computer and apps and all that stuff. I keep up with the youth.”
Dr. Lewandowski, chairman of the psychology department, has known Palfai for 36 years. He says that, when people ask Palfai why he’s done this for so long, Palfai responds, “what else would I do? This is what I was born to do, why would I stop doing it?”
But Palfai has decided that he’s ready to retire in the next couple of years.
Lewandowski says that he thinks Palfai is finally seeing that it’s time to pass the baton. “I think we all, as we get older, we hear a voice inside – that is probably no one variable but a number of different things – age, energy, interest in doing some other things before it’s all over. Giving way to younger people, realizing that maybe you don’t want to work this hard anymore,” said Lewandowski.
Since he’s planning to retire soon, Palfai is only working on one study right now, which has been ongoing since 1978. It’s a questionnaire about students’ knowledge of drugs. “Just to see how life changes over time, that’s why it’s longitudinal,” says Palfai. “1970 students versus the 1990s versus the 2010s and the trends of drug use: what they liked before, what they like now.”
Palfai was born in Hungary and left home at the age of 15 during the Hungarian Revolution to finish high school in Germany.
“He made his way to North America and started his undergraduate studies with little knowledge of the English language, finished his Ph.D. in three years, and became a full professor,” said Tibor Palfai, Jr., one of Dr. Palfai’s two sons. Tibor is also a psychology professor, at Boston University. His other son, Jamie, is an attorney in Arizona.
Lewandowski says that Palfai’s sons are bright, accomplished and athletic, much like their father. “Not showy, not about themselves, not overly talkative,” he said. “I don’t think Tibor reveals that much of himself to people – he’d rather ask about you and how you’re doing.”
Lewandowski describes Palfai as interesting, charismatic, fun, smart, generous and competitive. “He’s a former champion squash player, tennis player and golf player,” says Lewandowski.
When one asks Palfai about what he used to do in his spare time, he humbly says that he participated in sports. “In those days in Hungary, soccer was the big thing. I also played water polo and table tennis. That’s about it,” says Palfai.
Palfai obtained his degree in Canada, where his interest in psychology began. He was working at a pharmaceutical company with a woman, Dr. Jane Stewart. “And she was gorgeous, I fell in love with her,” says Palfai. She was a psychologist doing animal research, married to a famous professor, Dr. Dalbir Bindra. “Soon enough I became his student at McGill.”
The drug that has always fascinated Palfai the most is LSD because a very small amount can send you into a fourteen-hour trip, and an even smaller amount actually reaches your brain. “It’s a miracle drug,” according to Palfai.
Since he arrived at S.U., Palfai has taught many different courses and initiated two new classes: Biopsychology, and Drugs and Human Behavior, for which he’s written his own textbook. On and off he’s taught the Introduction to Psychology course, and graduate courses including Behavioral Pharmacology, Drugs and Literature, and a number of independent studies. On top of all of that, he’s the associate to the vice president of research and graduate affairs.
Lewandowski praises Palfai for the love and passion he has for his job, which Lewandowski says you must have to teach thousands of students for 46 years. “He’s taught more students at Syracuse University than perhaps anyone in the history of this school,” said Lewandowski.
Tim Reid is one of Palfai’s teaching assistants who explains that, in academia, there are certain people who you can just tell are experts in the field: “he’s that person in the field of drugs.”
At the end of each semester, all of Palfai’s teaching assistants get to go to lunch with him. “When he walks into the country club, they know who he is. He’s a big deal,” says Reid.
Reid describes Palfai as very professional, but still humor-filled. “He gives the T.A.s a lot of freedom, which I really appreciate. He does not micro-manage in any sense of the word.” According to Reid, Palfai is very hands-off, wanting his T.A.s to learn on their own. But for people who want guidance, he’s always available.
Palfai’s favorite thing about being around young people is “infecting them” with his biases. Palfai is a behaviorist at heart, which means that he believes the proper study of psychology is behavior, “not the dynamic components of the soul as some people do.”
Palfai’s proudest accomplishment is discovering the schedule-induced polydipsia in the mouse. In laymen terms, he created a situation in which pregnant mice get drunk so they can study the effects on offspring, which had a significant impact on fetal alcohol syndrome research.
“One 36-hour period is enough to create the symptom, which translated to human beings is the first trimester,” said Palfai. If a pregnant woman gets drunk for 36 hours, the baby will likely develop fetal alcohol syndrome.
After he retires, Palfai plans to write, paint and read, staying in Syracuse. “I’m not for the sun, I don’t like the sun,” he explains.
Palfai’s son Tibor said that his father “has a wide range of interests and a persistent curiosity about him that keeps him engaged and engaging. He has a relaxed and positive attitude and is someone who really enjoys all aspects of his day-to-day life.”
Brian K. Martens has been one of Palfai’s colleagues in the psychology department since 1986. “I remember being nervous to teach in front of a large auditorium and Dr. Palfai gave me a piece of sage advice that I still follow to this day,” said Martens. “He simply said, ‘Take the time to tell a good story.’”