Department of Communication & Public Affairs

35th Annual George Boxer Memorial Lecture Slated for October 10, 2006

Date: October 5, 2006

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Contact: Jerry Carey or Patricia M. Hansen
Phone: (856) 566-6171, 732-235-6307
careyge@umdnj.edu, hansenmp@umdnj.edu

PISCATAWAY - Dr. Pasko Rakic, a world renowned researcher in the field of cellular and molecular development of the brain and the director of the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience at Yale University School of Medicine, will present "Making Maps of the Mind," the 2006 George Boxer Memorial Lecture, on October 10, at 4 p.m., in the Main Auditorium at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 675 Hoes Lane, in Piscataway . The Boxer Memorial Lecture series is a free public program offered by the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology.

Dr. Rakic, the Duberg Professor of Neuroscience and chairman of Neurobiology at Yale University School of Medicine, is the author of hundreds of scientific papers that outline his discoveries on the development of the cerebral cortex. Among his pioneering contributions is the discovery of the way that embryonic nerve cells migrate in the central nervous system. His studies have provided the framework for much of the current understanding of normal and pathological development of the human brain as well as congenital disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and childhood epilepsy.

This year's lecture is the 35th in a prestigious series that began in 1969 as a tribute in memory of Dr. George E. Boxer, former executive director of the Merck Institute and associate editor of Cancer Research. Over the years, this acclaimed series has attracted lecturers from across the nation, including eight Nobel Prize winners.

More information about the George Boxer Memorial Lecture is available by contacting the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at (732) 235-5391.