Albert Einstein World Award of Science 1995
Field of Research: Brain Research
Date: 16 December 1995
Place of Ceremony: Palacio de Bellas Artes
Host Institution: INBA, CONACULTA, Palacio de las Bellas Artes
Host Country: México City, México
Mexico, D.F., Mexico, December 1995. The World Cultural Council presented the 1995 Albert Einstein World Award of Science to Prof. Herbert H. Jasper, Professor Emeritus of the University of Montreal, Canada. The Awarding Ceremony took place at the Palace of Fine Arts in México City.
Prof. Jasper was selected as the recipient of the Award in recognition to his more than 50 years of valuable and pioneering research in the field of neuroscience. His entire research career has been characterized by a succession of innovative discoveries which have served to start unveiling the mysteries of the brain. He is rightfully recognized as one of the founder of modern neuroscience. Through his pioneering studies on the electrophysiology of the brain, he has established the modern basis of electroencephalography. With the collaboration of Wilder Penfield he has contributed to the understanding of the specificity of normal cortical functions in the control of the motricity. He also discovered the effects of the lack of hemispheric dominance of the brain in the coordination of bilateral movements.
Prof. Jasper belongs to the first ones to devise techniques to study the role of newly discovered brain neurotransmitter in the modulation of motor function. He discovered with Allan Elliott the importance of amino acids as the principle excitatory and inhibitory chemical transmitters in the brain.
Prof. Jasper was born in La Grande, Oregon, USA, in 1906. He is a Canadian citizen since 1943. He received his M.A. in 1929 from the University of Oregon, his Ph.D. (Psychology) from the University of Iowa in 1931, and a postdoctoral degree at the University of Paris in 1933. From 1946 to 1964 served as Professor of Experimental Neurology at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, and from} 1965 to 1976 as Professor of Neurophysiology, Université de Montréal. A member of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, also member of the Canadian Neurological Society and the Royal Society of Medicine, he has actively participated on numerous conferences and seminars worldwide and has managed to be a powerful promoter in the organization of various international and national societies of neurosciences which have served to make this field of research one of the most popular in modern time.
His professional life is plenty of success and accomplishments, he has wrote more than 350 scientific publications and during his lifetime he has received numerous awards and honours among them the Order of Canada, Ralph Gerard Prize, Karl Lashley Prize and McLaughlin Medal and Prize.
