Robert Wurtz
Laureates 2004 - 2004 Future - Brain Sciences
Dr. Robert Wurtz, Dr. Amiram Grinvald and Dr. William Newsome have revolutionized neurobiology by showing that higher mental processes can be analyzed in the intact behaving primate in terms of individual nerve cells and cellular populations.
Individually and collectively, these three scientists have developed a new level of understanding of how the visual system works, how it processes complex sensory images, and how this processing relates to perception and behavior. The three developed methods to allow the study of neural function and behavior to more than one neuron at a time, and in so doing, began the construction of the bridge needed to connect our understanding of behavior with the working of entire neural circuits and systems.
Dr. Robert H. Wurtz is the founder and Senior Investigator at the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health (U.S.). Dr. Wurtz's honors include the Minerva Foundation for the Golden Brain Award in 1991 as well as the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association in 1997.
Dr. Grinvald is Director of The Grudetsky Centre for Research of Higher Brain Functions at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel). He is also the Foreign Director of the Max Planck Institute for Medicine at Heidelberg (Germany) and guest staff member at the Frontier Research Program, Riken (Japan). Dr. Grinvald was awarded the Koerber's 2000 Europe Prize.
Dr. William T. Newsome is Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University School of Medecine (U.S.) and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association in 2002
Dr. Wurtz, Dr. Grinvald and Dr. Newsome are among the most outstanding contemporary behavioral neuroscientists worldwide. The 2004 Dan David Prize honors these three scientists for their pioneering work in the field of Brain Sciences.
Dr. Robert Wurtz
Dr. Robert H. Wurtz has made one of the most salient discoveries in cognitive neurosciences by understanding how the brain processes different aspects of the visual scene in different places, segregating color, and processing motion and form.
Robert Wurtz developed techniques for studying the activity of single visual neurons in an alert monkey trained to carry out behavioral tasks. His studies enabled careful analysis of neuronal properties without the artifacts induced by anesthesia and paralysis, and more importantly, opened up the possibility of studying cognitive and behavioral questions on a physiological level.
His unique research focused on the human being's visual co-ordination of movement. Generally speaking, Dr. Wurtz was the first to identify that not only brain cells but even single neurons are responsible for visual co-ordination managed in real time by our brain. His research sought to understand the fundamental brain mechanisms that allow sensory-motor co-ordination, ranging from day-to-day activities to more demanding athletic precision.
Dr. Wurtz researched intra-cranial self-stimulation in the James Olds' laboratory at the University of Michigan. In 1966 he joined the Laboratory of Neurobiology of the National Institute of Mental Health, where he began research on the visual system and its correlation to the behavior of monkeys. During this period he spent a year as a visiting scientist at Cambridge University in England before becoming founder and chief of the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research in 1978.
Today Dr. Robert H. Wurtz is the Senior Investigator at the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research and is a member of the Scientific Board of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also a non-resident Fellow at the Salk Instute.
Dr. Wurtz's honors include the Minerva Foundation for the Golden Brain Award in 1991 as well as the American Psychological Association Award in 1997.
Dr. Wurtz and his collaborators are among the most outstanding contemporary behavioral neuroscientists worldwide. The 2004 Dan David Prize honours Dr. Robert H. Wurtz for his pioneering work in the field of Brain Sciences.
