Prestigious prize for neuroscientist

Richard Morris, Royal Society/Wolfson Professor of Neuroscience, has been named as the co-recipient of this year’s Fondation Ipsen Prize for Neuronal Plasticity.

He shares the prize with Dr T V P Bliss of the MRC National Institute for Medical Research and Professor Yadin Dudai of the Weizmann Institute, Israel.

Annual award

This prize is awarded annually for work on brain development, synaptogenesis, ageing, neural regeneration, cognition and brain growth factors among other things.

This year the citation is for research on “Mechanisms of Memory”.

Pioneering research

Professor Morris has pioneered novel techniques for studying the neurobiology of learning and memory.

Through these, he made the discovery that a specific type of excitatory receptor in the brain had a critical role in memory formation.

His current research has moved on to an interest in “mental schemas”. This work has potential applications in education and medicine.

I am honoured to receive this recognition for the work of my research group, but feel especially privileged to be sharing the prize with two distinguished neuroscientists who happen also to be great friends.