The Kavli Institute for Neuroscience will welcome neuroscientist Richard Huganir to campus on Wednesday, May 13 at 4 pm to give the Goldman-Rakic Prize Lecture. Huganir was awarded the 2014 Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience last fall at a ceremony in New York.
Huganir is director of the department of neuroscience and co-director of the Brain Science Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research focuses on synapses, the junctions between neurons, and the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate the transmission of signals across these junctions.
“Dr. Huganir's research on the molecules involved in strengthening connections between nerve cells in the brain has helped elucidate the mechanisms underlying learning and memory. It also has ramifications for disorders that inhibit learning, including Alzheimer’s and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as cognitive disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism,” says Pasko Rakic, chair of the Yale School of Medicine’s department of neurobiology and director of the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience.
The Golman-Rakic Prize was created in memory of Yale neuroscientist Patricia Goldman-Rakic, who died in an automobile accident in 2003. It is awarded annually by the Brain and Behavior Foundation.