| 1 | Name: | Dr. Carla J. Shatz | |
| Institution: | Stanford University | ||
| Year Elected: | 1997 | ||
| Class: | 2. Biological Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 208. Plant Sciences | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1947 | ||
Carla Shatz conducts basic research in brain development and function that helps lead to a better understating of neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy and dyslexia, as well as learning and memory. She studies how neural signaling - first in the womb and later from what our senses pick up - sculpts and reinforces proper brain circuits as they form between nerve cells in the eye and brain. Dr. Shatz graduated from Radcliffe College in 1969 with a B.A. in chemistry and then won a Marshall Scholarship to study physiology at University College London. She was awarded a Harvard Junior Fellowship at Harvard Medical School, where she received a Ph.D. in neurobiology in 1976. In 1978 Dr. Shatz established her own lab at Stanford University where she became Professor of Neurobiology. In 1992, she moved to the University of California, Berkeley as professor and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical School, then to Harvard Medical School as Nathan March Pusey Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology. In 2007 she returned to Stanford as the Director of BioX. Her work has gained her numerous honors, including the Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement in Health and Education (1995), the Alcon Award for Outstanding Contributions for Vision Research (1997), the Bernard Sachs Award from the Child Neurology Society (1999), the Weizman Women and Science Award (2000), the Mortimer D. Sackler, M.D., Prize for Distinguished Achievement in Developmental Psychobiology (2013), the Gruber Prize (2015), and the Kavli Neuroscience Prize (2016). Her expertise on brain development and learning has led to service on many advisory panels including the White House Conference on Early Childhood Development and Learning in 1997. In 1992, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, in 1995 to the National Academy of Sciences, in 1997 to the American Philosophical Society, and in 1999 to the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Shatz is past president (1994-1995) of the 28,000 member Society for Neuroscience and served on the Council of the National Academy of Sciences from 1998-2001. | |||