Michael Merzenich
Michael M. Merzenich (* 1942 in Lebanon , Oregon ) is an American neuroscientist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco .
Life
Merzenich earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Portland in 1964 and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1968. in physiology . As a postdoctoral fellow , he worked in the Neurophysiology Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin – Madison . In 1971 he received a professorship for ear, nose and throat medicine and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco , where he remained until his retirement in 2007.
With its research on the neurophysiology of hearing, Merzenich's team laid important foundations for the successful development of multi-channel cochlear implants . In 1996 he was one of the founders of Scientific Learning , a company that develops language learning programs for school children, including Fast ForWord . In 2002 Merzenich was one of the founders of Posit Science , a company that produces similar software for the elderly, the mentally ill and the brain injured . In 2009, Merzenich and a few colleagues founded the Brain Plasticity Institute , which worked on the development of new methods for the therapy of various neurological and psychiatric diseases in children and adults and which later became part of Posit Science .
Merzenich's research areas include the functional organization of the somatosensory and auditory nervous system , the neurological foundations of learning- induced neural plasticity and the neurological causes and the alleviation of developmental and acquired disorders of language , reading , memory , attention , cognitive control and movement . Merzenich and his teams developed models for the changes in the brain after (1) brain injury or stroke , (2) through negative experiences with subsequent impairment, psychosis and addiction, and (3) in the context of aging . All of these models simultaneously served as the basis for the development of medical therapy methods for humans.
Awards (selection)
- 1997 Neuronal Plasticity Prize from the Ipsen Foundation
- 1999 member of the National Academy of Sciences
- 2002 Zülch Prize from the Max Planck Society
- 2010 member of the Institute of Medicine
- 2015 Russ Prize from the National Academy of Engineering
- 2016 Kavli Prize from the Norwegian Academy of Sciences
Web links
- Dr. Michael Merzenich, PhD at brainhq.com
Individual evidence
- ^ Neurosciences. (No longer available online.) In: fondation-ipsen.org. April 22, 2016, archived from the original on July 21, 2017 ; accessed on June 2, 2016 .
- ↑ Michael Merzenich. In: nasonline.org. Retrieved June 2, 2016 .
- ↑ Zülch price. In: mpg.de. Retrieved June 2, 2016 .
- ↑ NAE website - Dr. Michael M. Merzenich. In: nae.edu. Retrieved June 2, 2016 .
- ↑ Michael M. Merzenich. In: kavliprize.org. Accessed June 2, 2016 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Merzenich, Michael |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Merzenich, Michael M. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American neuroscientist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1942 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lebanon , Oregon |