Last modified: Thursday, June 1, 2006
Harvard Medicine's Carla Shatz is IU Gill Center honoree
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 1, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Harvard University neurobiologist Carla J. Shatz is the winner of the 2006 Gill Prize presented by the Indiana University Gill Center for Biomolecular Sciences.
Shatz, chair of the Harvard Medical School's Department of Neurobiology and Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology, received the award this week at the Gill Center's biennial symposium in Bloomington. The prize entails a $25,000 award, a commemorative vase and the symposium's keynote address.
The Gill Prize honors a scientist whose research has had the most profound recent impact on shaping the field and enhancing public understanding of neuroscience.
"Perhaps the key to understanding how the brain works is to understand how the billions of cells in the brain get connected during the process of development," said Gill Center Director and Linda and Jack Gill Chair of Neuroscience J. Michael Walker. "Professor Shatz has made shocking discoveries on processes that lead to the incredible complexity of the brain. She has developed new ways of thinking about this problem. At multiple levels her work shows us how to think about the question."
Shatz graduated from Radcliffe College with a B.A. degree in chemistry. She was awarded a Marshall Scholarship to study at University College London, where she received an M.Phil. degree in physiology. Later she received a Ph.D. degree in neurobiology from Harvard Medical School, where she studied with Nobel laureates David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel.
To speak with Shatz, please contact Don Gibbons, Harvard Medical School, at 617-432-0442 or don_gibbons@hms.harvard.edu. To speak with Walker, please contact Misty Theodore at 812-856-1930 or mtheodor@indiana.edu.
