NIDCD Grantees Share 2005 Peter Gruber Neuroscience Award

November 2, 2005

NIDCD is pleased to announce that two of its long-term grantees, Eric Knudsen, Ph.D., and Masakazu Konishi, Ph.D., will share the 2005 Peter Gruber Foundation’s Neuroscience Award for research on sound localization and neural plasticity. Each will receive a gold medal and $200,000 at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting on November 13, 2005, in Washington, D.C.

Eric Knudsen, Ph.D.
Dr. Knudsen is professor and chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. Dr. Knudsen is an expert on the effects of experience on the structure and function of the central auditory system. His research focuses on cellular mechanisms that underlie adaptive behavioral changes in response to experience with changing environmental conditions during development and in adult animals. Dr. Knudsen received his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego. He received his first NIDCD grant in 1980.

Masakazu Konishi, Ph.D.
Dr. Konishi is the Bing Professor of Behavioral Biology at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Konishi is an expert in the neurobiological study of natural behavior such as the capture of prey by owls and the singing of songbirds. For the past 20 years, he has been investigating the brain mechanisms of sound localization in barn owls. Dr. Konishi received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to the support he has received from NIDCD, Dr. Konishi has received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

To Read more about the Peter Gruber Foundation, Dr. Knudsen and Dr. Konishi see this page for links to further information: http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/news/releases/05/11_02_05.asp.