The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT will present the sixth annual Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience to Jeremy Nathans, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of molecular biology and genetics, neuroscience, and ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Nathans will deliver the Scolnick Prize lecture, titled "The Evolution of Trichromatic Color Vision," at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 27, in the MIT Cognitive Sciences Complex, 43 Vassar St. (Building 46, room 3002). The lecture, followed by a reception, is free and open to the public.
The Scolnick Prize is awarded annually by the McGovern Institute to recognize an individual who has made outstanding advances in the field of neuroscience. Nathans will receive the prize for his contributions to the understanding of color vision, brain development and retinal disease.
"Jeremy Nathans exemplifies the spirit of discovery that we honor through this award," says Robert Desimone, director of the McGovern Institute and chair of the selection committee. "His pioneering work on the mechanism of color vision has led to an extraordinary range of insights into the function and development of the brain, as well as the basis for many forms of human blindness."
The Scolnick Prize is named in honor of Dr. Edward M. Scolnick, former president of Merck Research Laboratories and now an associate member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He directs the Broad's Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research and is a member of the McGovern Institute's governing board. The prize, which is endowed through a gift from Merck to the McGovern Institute, consists of a $50,000 award, plus an inscribed gift, and is given each year to one recipient.
