Last modified: Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Top neuroscientists receive awards from IU's Gill Center
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 13, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Neuroscientists from the University of Texas at Austin and the California Institute of Technology will be honored at the annual Gill Symposium of the Linda and Jack Gill Center for Biomolecular Science at Indiana University Bloomington next week.
Daniel Johnston, Karl Folkers Chair in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research and director of the Center for Learning and Memory and Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Texas, will receive the 2009 Gill Award. Linda Hsieh-Wilson, associate professor of chemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at the California Institute of Technology, will receive the 2009 Gill Young Investigator Award. These awards recognize exceptional scientists who have emerged as international leaders in cellular, membrane or molecular neuroscience.
Ken Mackie, Linda and Jack Gill Chair of Neuroscience at IU and interim director of the Gill Center, described Johnston, a professor of neurobiology, as a "skilled and enthusiastic lecturer" and a ground-breaking researcher.
"Dr. Johnston's work has illuminated the active role dendrites play in integrating information in the nervous system," Mackie said. "His work is relevant for understanding how memories are formed and in the pathogenesis of epilepsy."
Richard D. DiMarchi, Linda and Jack Gill Chair of Biomolecular Science, said Hsieh-Wilson's research is leading the way in defining the molecular characteristics central to biochemical communication in the central nervous system.
"Her work focuses on the role of protein glycosylation where she and her colleagues have identified a set of previously unknown glycosylation sites," DiMarchi said. "The molecular specificity that her work brings to chemical synthesis and biochemical analysis of these complex biomolecules has set a new benchmark at the interface of neuroscience and chemical-biology."
The 2009 Gill Symposium will take place on Wednesday, May 20, in the Indiana Memorial Union. For more information about the symposium, please visit: https://www.indiana.edu/~gillctr/symposiums.shtml.
The Linda and Jack Gill Center for Biomolecular Science was established by a generous gift from Linda and Jack Gill to advance the understanding of complex biological processes and to train next generation of scientists in biomolecular measurements, especially in the field of neuroscience. Members and collaborators include faculty from IU's departments of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Psychological and Brain Sciences and the School of Medicine.
For more information about the Gill Symposium, the Gill Center, or to speak with Mackie or DiMarchi, please contact Misty Theodore at 812-856-1930 or mtheodor@indiana.edu. To speak with Johnston, please contact Kathleen Pantalion at 512-232-6564 and kpantalion@mail.utexas.edu. To speak with Hsieh-Wilson, please contact Joëlle Radford at 626-395-6016 and joelle@caltech.edu.
