Honors and Awards

Dr. Alfredo Fontanini was awarded the Ajinomoto Award for Young Investigators in Gustation. The Award is awarded annually to an outstanding junior scientist who is an emerging leader in the field of gustation.

Dr. Sherrye Glaser co-authored a paper (with Prof. Dale Deutsch and Martin Kaczocha of the Biochemistry Dept.) that was the subject of a press release by Dr. Nora Volkow of NIDA. The research was a major breakthrough for intracellular transport of endocannabinoids by fatty acid binding proteins. This opens up a new area of research with relevance for therapeutic applications.

Gary Matthews received the Sixth Annual Sir Bernard Katz Award for Excellence in Research in Exocytosis and Endocytosis at the Biophysical Society meeting in Boston on February 28, 2009. His award lecture was entitled “Synaptic vesicle exocytosis and endocytosis at ribbon synapses.”

The Katz Award was named in honor of Sir Bernard Katz who observed (with Paul Fatt) spontaneous miniature synaptic currents and developed the “quantum hypothesis” that is the basis for our current understanding of neurotransmitter release as exocytosis, and for which he received the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology (with von Euler and Axelrod) in 1970.

Arianna Maffei will Chair and speak at the panel “A look into long term potential of GABAergic synapses” at the 2009 Winter Conference on Brain Research in Colorado from January 24 – 30.

Alfredo Fontanini will Chair and speak at the panel “Cognitive modulation of sensory processing” at the 2009 Winter Conference on Brain Research in Colorado from January 24 – 30.

Lorna Role was promoted to Fellow status in the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology for both her expanding scientific reputation and contributions to the College through committee work and involvement in the Annual Meeting.

Gary Matthews was awarded the 2008 Brian Boycott Prize at the July 2008 FASEB Conference on Retinal Neurobiology and Visual Processing. He shared the prize with Masao Tachibana of the University of Tokyo. The Boycott Prize is awarded at this biennial conference to researchers who have made significant contributions to understanding the function of the retina, and it was given to Drs. Matthews and Tachibana for their work on synaptic processing by retinal bipolar neurons.

The Boycott Prize is named in honor of Brian B. Boycott, FRS, who was a major figure in retinal research. Brian was a professor at University College, London for many years and also directed the famed MRC Biophysics Unit at King's College (succeeding Maurice Wilkins as director). Brian was an avid participant in the FASEB conference until his death in 2000.