Edward J. Olszewski

The American Philosophical Society is pleased to award the 2014 John Frederick Lewis Award to Edward J. Olszewski for his monograph Parmigianino's Madonna of the Long Neck: A Grace Beyond the Reach of Art (Memoirs, volume 269). The presentation of the award will take place on April 24 at the Society's 2015 Spring Meeting.

This study is the first to offer a comprehensive overview of Parmigianino’s enigmatic painting of The Madonna of the Long Neck in the Uffizi. It expands previous formalistic discussions to treat the subject in terms of iconography, semiotics, studio practice, and art theory. It is argued that the painting is not merely an example of Mannerist extravagance, but that the Virgin in her extraordinary distension can be explained by a litany in Ecclesiasticus, with her enlargement read as a signifier of her mercy (Misericordia). Parmigianino’s panel is interpreted as an Immaculate Conception. Because the Magisterium had not fully defined the belief as dogma, the theological debate confused the artist and his contemporaries, but also gave them flexibility in their depictions of this abstract doctrine. The painting is situated with others of the subject from Leonardo and Giovanni Bellini to Federico Barocci and El Greco. The Madonna’s pose conforms with feminine decorum as dictated by contemporary treatises on dance and other writings. The subject’s genesis as a theological exercise is traced through the artist’s drawings. The book includes a color frontispiece, as well as a 15-page color insert.

Edward J. Olszewski is Professor Emeritus of Art History at Case Western Reserve University. He retired as Chair of the Department of Art History and as professor in December 2010. He has published a multi-volume corpus of drawings with Harvey Miller, a drawings catalogue (The Draftsman's Eye, 1981), and numerous articles on Renaissance patronage, iconography, and art theory. Dr. Olszewski is the author of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667-1740) and the Vatican Tomb of Pope Alexander VIII, published by the American Philosophical Society in 2004. Dr. Olszewski’s earlier publication received the 2004 John Frederick Lewis Award.

In 1935 the Society established the John Frederick Lewis Award with funds donated by his widow. The award recognizes the best book or monograph published by the Society in a given year. The selection committee consisted of Glen W. Bowersock (chair), Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, Institute for Advanced Study; Julia Haig Gaisser, Professor Emeritus of Latin, Eugenia Chase Guild Professor Emeritus in the Humanities, Bryn Mawr College; and Noel M. Swerdlow, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Astrophysics and of History, University of Chicago.

Autumn General Meeting
Richard F. Thompson

The 2007 recipient of the American Philosophical Society’s Karl Spencer Lashley Award is Richard F. Thompson in recognition of his distinguished contributions to understanding the brain substrates of learning and memory. Specifically, through his meticulous and diligent application of the eyeblink classical conditioning paradigm, Dr. Thompson discovered the essential role of the deep cerebellar nuclei, as an essential component of classically conditioned procedural memory formation, and that plasticity within the synapses of these nuclei represent the long-elusive memory trace that Lashley had sought.

Richard Thompson received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He was a professor at the University of Oregon School of Medicine from 1959-67 and a professor at the University of California, Irvine from 1967-73 and 1975-80. He was then professor, Karl Lashley's Chair, at Harvard University from 1973-75 and the Bing Professor of Human Biology and Psychology at Stanford University from 1980-87. Dr. Thompson is currently the Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California. For many years he was Director of the Neuroscience Program (Program in Neural, Informational and Behavioral Sciences) at the University of Southern California and is currently Senior Scientific Advisor to the Neuroscience Program. He is the author of Foundations of Physiological Psychology (1967); (with others) Psychology (1971); and Introduction to Physiological Psychology (1975). Dr. Thompson has served on the council of the Society for Neuroscience. He was recently elected president of the Western Psychological Association and president of the Pavlovian Society and was previous president of the American Psychological Society. He has devoted his life to the study of brain substrates of behavior. His text, Foundations of Physiological Psychology, was a landmark in the development of modern behavioral neuroscience, as was his later founding and editing of the APA journal, Behavioral Neuroscience. Inspired by Karl Lashley's "search for the engram," his research has focused on neural mechanisms of learning and memory, initially in the now classic work with W.A. Spencer on habituation. More recently, Dr. Thompson and his students utilized basic associative learning in mammals, characterizing processes of memory formation in two brain structures: hippocampus and cerebellum. They appear to have localized one form of memory trace to the cerebellum, thus coming full circle to Lashley's initial quest. Dr. Thompson was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1999.

Established in 1957 by Dr. Lashley, a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist, the award is made in recognition of work on the integrative neuroscience of behavior. Lashley's entire scientific career was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis. His famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience.

The selection committee consisted of chairman Floyd E. Bloom, Professor Emeritus, Department of Neuropharmacology, The Scripps Research Institute; John E. Dowling, Harvard College Professor and Llura and Gordon Gund Professor of Neurosciences, Harvard University; Carla J. Shatz, Director, BioX, Stanford University; and Larry R. Squire, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology, University of California, San Diego.

Spring General Meeting
Eric Knudsen

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2008 Karl Spencer Lashley Award to Eric Knudsen. The citation read “in recognition of his comprehensive study of visual and auditory perception in the owl and for his elucidation of how the auditory map is calibrated by the visual system during development.” The award was presented by the Society’s President, Baruch S. Blumberg, Fox Chase Distinguished Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Distinguished Scientist at NASA Fundamental Space Biology.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist. The award is made in recognition of work on the integrative neuroscience of behavior. At the time of his death, Dr. Lashley was Emeritus Research Professor of Neuropsychology at Harvard University and Emeritus Director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Florida. Lashley's contemporaries considered his experimental work as daring and original. His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis, or as he phrased it: “the discovery of principles of nervous integration which are as yet completely unknown”. Lashley’s famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience.

Eric Knudsen received a Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego, and following a postdoctoral fellowship at Cal Tech joined the faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine where he is currently Professor of Neurobiology. In his postdoctoral work, Dr. Knudsen discovered a map of auditory space in the barn owl’s brain. This map consists of neurons that respond only to sounds coming from particular directions. Because space is not topographically mapped in the cochlea, the map of auditory space must be centrally synthesized. After Knudsen established his laboratory at Stanford, he studied the relationships between the maps of auditory and visual space. He quickly found that the auditory space map projects to the optic tectum to give rise to a bimodal map in which each neuron responds to both auditory and visual stimuli located in the same spatial coordinates (receptive field). Thus, the brain creates an auditory space map by computation in order to conform to the same coordinate system that the visual system uses. He cleverly used the bimodal map to explore the mechanisms by which the auditory map is calibrated during ontogeny. In his most incisive experiment, he let young owls wear a pair of distorted glasses to show how the auditory receptive fields of bimodal neurons become aligned with the displaced visual receptive fields. He and his students have identified the site of plasticity for this process. His group has made seminal contributions to two other aspects of sound localization; one is the discovery of a motor map for the control of head turning and the other concerns the role of the forebrain in sound localization. His recent studies of the role of attention in sound localization have opened up a new frontier to explore.

The selection committee consisted of Larry R. Squire (chairman), Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Research Career Scientist at the VA Medical Center, San Diego; John E. Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University; and Richard F. Thompson, Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California.

Autumn General Meeting
James L. McGaugh

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2009 Karl Spencer Lashley Award to James L. McGaugh. The citation read: “in recognition of his comprehensive study of the biological processes that modulate the formation and consolidation of memory.”  The award was presented by the Society’s President, Baruch S. Blumberg, Fox Chase Distinguished Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Distinguished Scientist at NASA Fundamental Space Biology.

Dr. McGaugh received his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1964 joined the faculty at University of California, Irvine, as the founding chair of the Department of Psychobiology.  He continues at UC Irvine today as Founding Director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and also Research Professor of Psychobiology and Pharmacology.  He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1989 and of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences since 1992 and has held the presidency of both the American Psychological Society and the Western Psychological Association.  Across more than 40 years of experimental work, James McGaugh has investigated the organization of memory and the processes that affect memory.  He introduced the technique of post-trial treatment with drugs in order to separate effects on sensory or motor processes from effects on memory.  His work has shown that processes operating immediately after a learning event are decisive for determining how well the event is later remembered. In biological studies, he worked out in detail the pathway by which effects that occur after training modulate retention.  The pathway begins with release of peripheral hormones from the adrenal medulla and ends at the amygdala.  The amygdala is the key structure by which emotion and arousal modulate the strength of memory.  This work has elucidated the concept of memory consolidation and the neurobiological processes that regulate consolidation.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist.  At the time of his death, Dr. Lashley was Emeritus Research Professor of Neuropsychology at Harvard University and Emeritus Director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Florida. His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis.  His famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience. The award is made in recognition of work on the integrative neuroscience of behavior.

The selection committee consisted of Larry R. Squire (chair), Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Research Career Scientist at the VA Medical Center, San Diego; John E. Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University; Fernando Nottebohm, Dorothea L. Leonhardt Professor in the Laboratory of Animal Behavior at the Rockefeller University; and Richard F. Thompson, Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California.

Spring General Meeting
William T. Newsome

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2010 Karl Spencer Lashley Award to William T. Newsome. The citation read: “in recognition of his pioneering studies of the primate visual system demonstrating the relation between perception and the activity of individual neurons.”  The award was presented by the Society’s President, Baruch S. Blumberg, Fox Chase Distinguished Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Distinguished Scientist at NASA Fundamental Space Biology.

William Newsome has provided the most compelling evidence for the relationship between the activity of individual neurons in the brain and visual perception. In studies of motion-sensitive neurons in the primate cerebral cortex, he combined sophisticated behavioral paradigms and precise physiological analysis to reveal the causal relationships between cortical neurons and the perception of visual motion. He showed that the firing of a small cluster of neurons correlated with the ability to report the direction of visual motion, that activating the neurons with microstimulation biased the monkey’s judgment of the direction of motion, and that discrete lesions reduced the ability to make these motion judgments. Based on these experiments, Newsome has developed and tested new hypotheses about how neuronal signals in the brain give rise to perception and perceptual decisions.

Dr. Newsome received his Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology.  He is currently Professor of Neurobiology at Stanford University School of Medicine and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist.  The award is made in recognition of work on the integrative neuroscience of behavior.  At the time of his death, Dr. Lashley was Emeritus Research Professor of Neuropsychology at Harvard University and Emeritus Director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Florida.  Lashley's contemporaries considered his experimental work as daring and original.  His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis, or as he phrased it: “the discovery of principles of nervous integration which are as yet completely unknown.”  Lashley’s famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience.

The selection committee consisted of chair Larry R. Squire, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego; John E. Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University; Fernando Nottebohm, Dorothea L. Leonhardt Professor at the Laboratory of Animal Behavior, Rockefeller University; and Richard F. Thompson, Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences in the Neuroscience Program at the University of Southern California.

Spring General Meeting
Joseph E. LeDoux

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2011 Karl Spencer Lashley Award to Joseph E. LeDoux. The citation read: “in recognition of his seminal studies of the neural mechanisms of emotional learning, particularly fear learning and fear memory.”  The award was presented by the Society’s President, Clyde F. Barker, Donald Guthrie Professor, Department of Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Joseph LeDoux has carried out pioneering and comprehensive studies of the neuroscience of fear learning and fear memory.  In an animal model, he traced the fear processing circuit from sensory systems to the amygdala, identified the lateral nucleus of the amygdala as a key sensory region and a site for synaptic plasticity, and showed that the connections from the lateral to the central nucleus are essential for processing fear responses.  He has also elucidated the phenomenon of extinction, related extinction to the medial prefrontal cortex, and shown how medial prefrontal cortex interacts with the amygdala in extinction.  His work has substantial clinical relevance for the treatment of anxiety disorders.

Dr. LeDoux is currently the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science and University Professor at the Center for Neural Science at New York University.  He is also the director of the Center for the Neuroscience of Fear and Anxiety, a multi-university Center in New York City.  He received his Ph.D. in 1977 at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist.  The award is made in recognition of work on the integrative neuroscience of behavior.  At the time of his death, Dr. Lashley was Emeritus Research Professor of Neuropsychology at Harvard University and Emeritus Director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Florida.  Lashley's contemporaries considered his experimental work as daring and original.  His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis, or as he phrased it: “the discovery of principles of nervous integration which are as yet completely unknown.” Lashley’s famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience.

The Lashley Award Selection Committee consisted of chair Larry R. Squire, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology at University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, and Research Career Scientist at VA Medical Center, San Diego; John E. Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University; Fernando Nottebohm, Dorothea L. Leonhardt Professor in the Laboratory of Animal Behavior at Rockefeller University; and Richard F. Thompson, Keck Professor of Psychology and Biological Sciences in the Neuroscience Program at University of Southern California.

2012 Spring General Meeting
Eve Marder

The American Philosophical Society awarded the 2012 Karl Spencer Lashley Award to Eve Marder. The citation read: "in recognition of her comprehensive work with a small nervous system, demonstrating general principles by which neuromodulatory substances reconfigure the operation of neuronal networks."  The award was presented by the Society’s President, Clyde F. Barker, Donald Guthrie Professor, Department of Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Eve Marder has carried out pioneering work with a small nervous system, the stomatogastric ganglion of a decapod crustacean. She showed that a single neural circuit can produce a number of different outputs depending on the presence of specific neuromodulators. In addition, she has combined experimental and computational studies to identify the neurons and synapses in the circuit, to understand how the circuit works, and to explore broader issues such as how networks maintain stability across time.

Eve Marder's primary interest is in the intrinsic properties of individual neurons and their synaptic connections. She has carried out pioneering work elucidating the various mechanisms by which a similar circuit outputs can be produced both in multiple individual animals and in the same animal over time, and how, exactly, these networks can remain stable despite the continuing changes of a living organism. She has published seminal studies in neuronal homeostasis, rhythm generation, neuromodulation, computational neuroscience, and dynamic clamp technique. She is a member of both the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Marder is currently the Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Neuroscience at Brandeis University. She received her Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego in 1974.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist.  The award is made in recognition of work on the integrative neuroscience of behavior.  At the time of his death, Dr. Lashley was Emeritus Research Professor of Neuropsychology at Harvard University and Emeritus Director of the Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology in Florida.  Lashley's contemporaries considered his experimental work as daring and original.  His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis, or as he phrased it: “the discovery of principles of nervous integration which are as yet completely unknown.”  Lashley’s famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience.

The Lashley Award Selection Committee consisted of Larry R. Squire (chair), Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology at University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, and Research Career Scientist at VA Medical Center, San Diego; John E. Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences at Harvard University; William T. Newsome, Professor of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and Fernando Nottebohm, Dorothea L. Leonhardt Professor, Laboratory of Animal Behavior, Rockefeller University.

Autumn General Meeting
J. Anthony Movshon

The 2013 recipient of the American Philosophical Society’s Karl Spencer Lashley Award is J. Anthony Movshon “in recognition of his studies of how neurons in the cerebral cortex process visual information and how cortical information processing enables seeing.” J. Anthony Movshon is currently Director of the Center for Neural Science, University Professor, Silver Professor, Professor of Neural Science, and Professor of Psychology at New York University. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in 1975.

J. Anthony Movshon has carried out pioneering work on the neuroscience of vision, focusing on the organization and function of area V1, the first region of cerebral cortex to receive visual information from the external world. He developed the leading quantitative descriptions of V1 neuronal activity, characterized the linear and nonlinear properties of visual signals, and developed quantitative descriptions of how neurons in higher cortical areas combine inputs from lower cortical levels to support the perception of global motion patterns. His work has shed light on the neural basis of amblyopia - the most common form of blindness - and how the effects of amblyopia might be mitigated through early intervention.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Lashley, a member of the Society and a distinguished neuroscientist and neuropsychologist. His entire scientific life was spent in the study of behavior and its neural basis. Dr. Lashley’s famous experiments on the brain mechanisms of learning, memory and intelligence helped inaugurate the modern era of integrative neuroscience, and the Lashley Award recognizes innovative work that continues exploration in the field.

The selection committee consisted of Larry R. Squire (chair), Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Neurosciences, and Psychology, UCSD School of Medicine, Research Career Scientist, VA Medical Center, San Diego; John Dowling, Gordon and Llura Gund Professor of Neurosciences, Harvard University; William T. Newsome III, Professor of Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Fernando Nottebohm, Dorothea L. Leonhardt Professor, Laboratory of Animal Behavior, Rockefeller University; and Carla J. Shatz, Director, BioX, Stanford University.