The Board of Directors of The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience is pleased to announce the 2009 McKnight Scholar Award recipients.

The McKnight Scholar Awards are granted to young scientists who are in the early stages of establishing their own independent laboratories and research careers and who have demonstrated a commitment to neuroscience. The Endowment Fund seeks to support innovative research designed to bring science closer to the day when diseases of the brain and behavior can be accurately diagnosed, prevented, and treated. The six McKnight Scholar Award recipients will each receive $75,000 per year for three years. They are:

Diana Bautista, Ph.D., University of California Berkeley
Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Mammalian Touch and Pain

James Bisley, Ph.D., University of California Los Angeles
The Role of Posterior Parietal Cortex in Guiding Attention and Eye Movements

Nathaniel Daw, Ph.D., New York University
Decision Making in Structured, Sequential Tasks: Combining Computational, Behavioral, and Neuroscientific Approaches
 
Alapakkam Sampath, Ph.D., University of Southern California
The Role of Optimal Processing in Setting Sensory Threshold

Tatyana Sharpee, Ph.D., Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Discrete Representation of Visual Shapes in the Brain

Kausik Si, Ph.D., Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Role of Prion-like Molecule in Persistence of Memory

Applications for next year’s awards will be available in September 2009 and are due in early January 2010.

About The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience

The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience is an independent organization funded solely by The McKnight Foundation of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and led by a board of prominent neuroscientists from around the country. The McKnight Foundation has supported neuroscience research since 1977. The Foundation established the Endowment Fund in 1986 to carry out one of the intentions of founder William L. McKnight (1887-1979). One of the early leaders of the 3M Company, he had a personal interest in memory and its diseases and wanted part of his legacy used to help find cures.

The Endowment Fund makes three types of awards each year. In addition to the McKnight Scholar Award, they are the McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Awards, providing seed money to develop technical inventions to enhance brain research; and the McKnight Neuroscience of Brain Disorders Awards, supporting scientists working to translate basic research into diagnoses and therapies to improve human health.

Contact information

Dr. Thomas Jessell, The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, 212-305-1531
Eileen Maler, The McKnight Foundation, 612-333-4220