W. Alden Spencer Memorial Lecture and Award
The W. Alden Spencer Memorial Lecture and Award, established in 1978, is a joint effort between KIBS and the Department of Neuroscience. It honors exceptional young investigators in neuroscience. Since 2018, the award transitioned to a biennial schedule, alternating with the Kandel Lecture, providing a platform for recognizing emerging talent in the field.
Recent Recipients
2018
- Silvia Arber
University of Basel
“Circuit solutions for programming actions” - Botond Roska
University of Basel
“First steps in vision: Cell types, circuits, and repair”
2017
- David Ginty
Harvard Medical School
“The functional organization of mammalian touch neurons” - Ardem Patapoutian
The Scripps Research Institute
“Ion channels that feel the force”
2016
- Winrich Freiwald
Rockefeller University
“The dual face: Vision’s inroad into the social brain” - Doris Tsao
California Institute of Technology
“How the brain encodes faces”
2015
- Loren Looger
HHMI Janelia Research Campus
"Watching Brains in Action" - Atsushi Miyawaki
Riken Brain Science Institute
"Fluorescent Protein Technologies for Neurosciences"
2014
Eric Gouaux
Vollum Institute and Oregon Health and Science University
"The Life of a Memory: Associative Memory Formation and Consolidation"
2012
- Allison Doupe
UCSF
(No Lecture) - Michael Brainard
UCSF
(No Lecture)
2011
Karl Deisseroth
Stanford University
"Optogenetics: Development and Application"
2010
- Larry Zipursky
David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
“Call Recognition and Wiring the Brain” - Mark Tessier-Lavigne
Genentech Inc.
“The Logic and Mechanisms of Axon Guidance, Regeneration, and Degeneration”
2009
Michael Shadlen
University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle
“The Neurobiology of Decision Making: A Window on Cognition”