Pradel Research Award
Scheduled for presentation in 2024, recipients will be announced in January 2024. To get awards news straight to your inbox, make sure to sign up for our Connect with Awards newsletter.
About the Pradel Research Award
The Pradel Research Award is presented annually to recognize mid-career neuroscientists whose work is making major contributions to our understanding of the nervous system. The award is presented with a $50,000 research award to designate to an institution of the recipient's choice to support neuroscience research.
Most Recent Recipient
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Hongkui Zeng, Allen Institute for Brain Science, will receive the 2023 Pradel Research Award.
Zeng has elevated our understanding of cell types and their connections in the mammalian brain through her research on how different neuronal types work together to process and transform visual information.
Zeng’s groundbreaking contributions have led to a better understanding of neuronal diversity and neural circuits. Her research includes the development of transgenic mouse lines for marking and manipulating specific neuronal types; analysis of connectivity among brain areas with particular emphasis on connections between thalamus and cortex; and the use of single cell molecular methods to classify and characterize neurons and non-neuronal cells in cortex and other parts of the brain. Read more about Zeng's work»
Recipients:
Hongkui Zeng (2023)
For her extraordinary contributions to our understanding of cell types and connections in the mammalian brain and her development of systems neuroscience tools and data that are freely available to the research community.
Read more about Zeng's work»
Edward Chang (2022)
For his pioneering work on the representation of speech perception and speech production in the human brain, carried out through his advances in the technology of neural recordings and their analysis and by the design of experiments to reveal the features represented.
Read more about Chang's work»
Watch Chang's acceptance speech»
Tirin Moore (2021)
For his transformative contributions to our understanding of visual attention. By showing how neural activity in motor regions of prefrontal cortex influences visual representations in the brain, he established a causal link between motor control signals and the neural circuits of visual perception and attention.
Read more about Moore's work»
Watch Moore's acceptance speech»
Leslie B. Vosshall (2020)
For her seminal discoveries about the nature and organization of insect olfactory systems. She identified multiple classes of sensory receptors in Drosophila, defined the rules by which they recognize odors and subsequently richly extended this work to sensory biology and integration in the disease-bearing mosquito Aedes aegypti.
Read more about Vosshall's work»
Watch Vosshall's acceptance speech»
Liqun Luo (2019)
For his pioneering work in developing genetic mosaic methods that have revolutionized the study of diverse biological processes such as cell fate specification and cell morphogenesis and for using these methods to obtain insight into the development of wiring specificity in the nervous system of vertebrates and invertebrates.
Read more about Luo's work»
Watch Luo's acceptance speech»
Silvia Arber (2018)
For her insightful and innovative studies revealing at the cellular and molecular level the developmental mechanisms and organizational principles of motor circuit wiring in the spinal cord and brainstem that enable the execution of specific motor tasks.
Read more about Arber's work»
Watch Arber's acceptance speech»
Karel Svoboda (2017)
For his pioneering work to develop technologies for imaging cellular and synaptic structure and activity in the brain, and for using these methods to obtain insight into how the brain represents and stores information about sensory stimuli and transforms such information into action during motivated behavior.
Read more about Svoboda's work»
Alex L. Kolodkin (2016)
For his pioneering work on neuronal development research relating to the establishment of neuronal connectivity. He is known for his work on neuronal guidance cues and their receptors, the discovery of semaphorins, and unveiling guidance cue roles in neural circuit assembly and function in insects and mammals.
Read more about Kolodkin's work»
Catherine G. Dulac (2015)
For her pioneering contributions to the molecular biology of pheromone signaling in mammals and discoveries of neural mechanisms underlying sex-specific social behaviors including mating, aggression and parenting.
Read more about Dulac's work»
Allison J. Doupe (2014)
For her groundbreaking work using song birds to reveal important features of how neural circuits process information and are shaped by experience.
Kenneth C. Catania (2013)
Dr. Catania is a pioneering neuroethologist who has carried out highly imaginative investigations of the neural basis of sensory behavior in model organisms. His comparative studies of mammals that possess specialized sensory capacities have led to discoveries of fundamental principles of behavior, sensory processing, and brain organization, and have resulted in new insights about the evolution of the nervous system.
Dora E. Angelaki (2012)
For her fundamental discoveries on mechanisms of representation of vestibular sensory stimuli within the mammalian brain.
