Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga awarded Humb...( (Santa Barbara Calif.) Michael Gazz...)

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) Michael Gazzaniga, professor of psychology at UC Santa Barbara and director of the SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind, has received the Humboldt Research Prize in recognition of lifetime achievements in science.

"Professor Gazzaniga is a true pioneer in reaching across the disciplines to answer fundamental human questions about the relationship between mind and brain," said UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang. "The Humboldt Research Prize is a prestigious award and peer recognition that honors not only his lifetime achievements and discoveries, but also the far-reaching impact of his sustained contributions as the founder of the cognitive neuroscience field."

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany grants up to 100 Humboldt Research Awards annually to scientists and scholars "whose fundamental discoveries, new theories, or insights have had a significant impact on their own discipline and who are expected to continue producing cutting-edge achievements in the future." Winners receive 60,000 Euros (approximately $93,000) and are invited to conduct research at an institution of their choice in Germany.

At UCSB, Gazzaniga oversees an extensive and broad research program investigating how the brain enables the mind. Over the course of several decades, a major focus of his research has been a study of patients that have undergone split-brain surgery that has revealed lateralization of functions across the cerebral hemispheres.

Gazzaniga is also principal investigator of the Law and Neuroscience Project, the first systematic effort to bridge the fields of law and science in considering how courts should deal with new brain-scanning techniques as they apply to matters of law. The project is a multi-institution effort funded by an initial, three-year, $10-million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

He is also director of the Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscie
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