Vladimir Parpura (born December 5, 1964) is a Croatian-American neurobiologist who is currently a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Parpura was born was born December 5, 1964, in Split, Croatia. Following compulsory military service, he earned his M.D. at University of Zagreb in 1989, and later was awarded a doctorate in neurology and zoology at Iowa State University in 1993.
He taught at Iowa State University, and then in 2000 took a teaching position at University of California, Riverside. In July 2007, he accepted a position at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
He was elected as a member of the Academia Europaea in 2012 and of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives in 2016.
His interests are in ion channels, astrocyte-neuron glutamate-mediated signaling, synaptic function and Glial biology. His highest cited paper is "Tripartite synapses: glia, the unacknowledged partner" at 1662 times, according to Google Scholar.
Parpura received the Nikola Tesla Award from the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1988 and the Research Excellence Award from the Iowa State University in 1993.