Cold Spring Harbor, NY — For the second time in less than half a year, 黑料吃瓜资源 (CSHL) neuroscientist Adam Kepecs, Ph.D., has received an important fellowship award.聽It has just been announced that Kepecs, an assistant professor, has won a 2009 Klingenstein Fellowship in the Neurosciences.聽This past February, Kepecs was named a Research Fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The purpose of the Klingenstein fellowship, which provides $150,000 over three years, is 鈥渢o support, in the early stages of their careers, young investigators engaged in basic and clinical research鈥� in the neurosciences.聽Kepecs鈥� award is in the area of neural systems, one of three areas recognized by the Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund, Inc., which administers the fellowship.聽The other areas are cellular and molecular neuroscience and clinical research.
鈥満诹铣怨献试� is very proud of Adam Kepecs,鈥� said David L. Spector, Ph.D., Director of Research at CSHL. 鈥淚t is a distinct honor for any scientist to be recognized with a major fellowship award; to win two such distinctions in the space of half a year is truly noteworthy, and an indication of the success and future promise of Dr. Kepecs鈥� work.鈥�
Kepecs said that he was honored to be named a Klingenstein neuroscience fellow, and was particularly gratified that the fund鈥檚 generosity would make possible an expanded program of work.
He studies the neurobiological principles by which the brain makes decisions. 鈥淒ecision making is a problem that every living organism continually faces,鈥� he has pointed out. 鈥淲e view decisions as the elementary units of behavior from which more complex behaviors are assembled. Yet even simple decisions involve the integration of sensory and memory information with emotional and motivation attributes requiring the concerted action of millions of neurons across brain regions. Therefore we take an integrative approach centered around rodent behavioral tasks that allow us to systematically manipulate sensory stimuli, reward expectation and uncertainty.鈥�
Currently a major effort in the Kepecs lab is directed toward combining its behavioral expertise with molecular and optical techniques in order to monitor and manipulate genetically identified circuit elements in behaving mice.
In addition to its major program interest in neuroscience, the New York City-based Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund devotes additional resources to educational causes. For more information, visit
Written by: Peter Tarr, Senior Science Writer | [email protected] | 516-367-8455