Pasko Rakic, director of the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience at Yale and chair of the department of neurobiology, received the 2014 Child Mind Institute Distinguished Scientist Award Wednesday night for his “groundbreaking work in developmental neuroscience.”
The award dinner in New York, which also honored investment banker Ram Sundaram with the Child Advocacy Award, raised more than $6.5 million to support neuroscience research, mental health care for children and public education.
"Looking at tonight's honorees I can see a brighter future for all the young people who struggle with psychiatric and learning disorders," said Harold S. Koplewicz, president and founder of the Child Mind Institute. "Ram and Pasko embody the dedication, the commitment to breakthrough science and compassionate treatment, and the resolve that can make a real difference for our children and our children's children."
Rakic will be honored again next fall at a scientific symposium, “On the Shoulders of Giants,” hosted by the Child Mind Institute. The program is designed to illustrate the importance of mentorship in inspiring the next generation of researchers and will feature presentations by Rakic and his protégé Nenad Sestan, professor of neurobiology at Yale and a Kavli investigator.
Over the past three decades, Rakic’s pioneering studies have revealed how neurons in the developing cerebral cortex, the seat of higher cognitive function in the brain, are generated and how they assemble themselves into highly ordered, interconnected circuits.
His studies have provided a basis for understanding cortical development under normal and pathological conditions, and informed our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and intellectual disability.
Rakic is also the 2008 Kavli Prize laureate in neuroscience.
Past recipients of the Child Mind Institute Distinguished Scientist Award include Eric Kandel, Fred Kavli Professor and director, Kavli Institute for Brain Science, at Columbia University and Nobel Laureate.