Deadlines announced for 2003 Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology

Mississauga, ON April 1, 2003 Deadlines have been set for the 2003 Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology. Awarded by Eppendorf AG and ‘Science’, the prize acknowledges the increasingly active and important role of neurobiology in advancing our understanding of the functioning of the brain and the nervous system a quest that seems destined for dramatic expansion in the coming decades.

This international prize, established in 2002, encourages the work of promising young neurobiologists by providing support in the early stages of their careers. It is awarded annually for the most outstanding neurobiological research by a young scientist, as described in a 1,000-word essay based on research performed during the past three years.

The winner is awarded US$25,000 and publication of his or her essay in ‘Science’. The essay and those of three additional finalists are also published on Science Online. The award is announced and presented at a ceremony at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

Eppendorf subsidiary, Brinkmann Instruments, provides financial support to assist in enabling the grand prize winner to attend the meeting.

The deadline for applications is June 15, 2003. Young scientists who have received an advanced professional degree of either a PhD or MD within the past 10 years are eligible.

The prizewinner and three finalists are selected by a committee of independent scientists that is chaired by the Editor-in-Chief of ‘Science’. The next prizewinner will be announced during the week of the November 2003 Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans.

2002 Grand Prize Winner

The Grand Prize Winner in 2002 was Anjen Chenn, who received the grand prize for his essay, “Making a Bigger Brain by Regulating Cell Cycle Exit.”

Dr Chenn was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and grew up in Marion, Ohio. He received his bachelor’s degree in biochemical sciences from Harvard University in 1990. He went on to graduate studies in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Stanford University where he joined Dr Susan McConnell’s laboratory and studied mammalian cerebral cortical development. His research on asymmetric divisions in mammalian neurogenesis was published in a first-author paper in ‘Cell’ and was featured on the cover.

He received his PhD in neurosciences from Stanford University in 1996 and his M.D. in 1997. From there Dr Chenn moved to residency training in clinical pathology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and became board-certified in clinical pathology in 2000. During his residency training, Dr Chenn was awarded a Howard Hughes Physician Postdoctoral Fellowship and pursued postdoctoral research in Dr Christopher A. Walsh’s laboratory at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

His postdoctoral research on genetic regulation of cerebral cortical size resulted in a first-author research article and cover figure in Science. Dr Chenn is now an assistant professor in pathology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago where his laboratory continues to pursue research in mammalian neural development.

For more information on the Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology visit Brinkmann (an Eppendorf company) at www.brinkmann.com/award.