15 FN: rakic

Pasko Rakic, M.D., director of the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience at Yale, chair of the department of neurobiology, and the Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Neuroscience, has received the 2014 Child Mind Institute Distinguished Scientist Award for his “groundbreaking work in developmental neuroscience.” Rakic will be honored again next fall at a scientific symposium, “On the Shoulders of Giants,” hosted by the Child Mind Institute. The program is designed to illustrate the importance of mentorship in inspiring the next generation of researchers and will feature presentations by Rakic and Nenad Sestan, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology at Yale.

Over the past three decades, Rakic’s pioneering studies have revealed how neurons in the developing cerebral cortex, the seat of higher cognitive function in the brain, are generated and how they assemble themselves into highly ordered, interconnected circuits. His studies have provided a basis for understanding cortical development under normal and pathological conditions, and informed our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and intellectual disability. Rakic is also the 2008 Kavli Prize laureate in neuroscience.

Past recipients of the Child Mind Institute Distinguished Scientist Award include Eric Kandel, Fred Kavli Professor and director, Kavli Institute for Brain Science, at Columbia University and Nobel Laureate.