Brenda Milner is a McGill institution. The British expat trained under McGill psychology pioneer Donald Hebb, and went on to blaze her own trails by merging psychology and neurobiology to create the field of cognitive neuroscience. Still going strong in her nineties, Milner’s seminal research has provided landmark discoveries in the study of human memory and the brain’s temporal lobes, which play a key role in emotional responses, hearing, memory and speech.
She’s about to become $100,000 richer, too. On November 2, 2011, Milner will receive this year’s Pearl Meister Greengard Prize from Rockefeller University. The prize recognizes female scientists who have made exceptional contributions to biomedical science, a group that historically has not received appropriate recognition and acclaim.
“I am absolutely delighted and amazed to receive this special award and so proud and honoured to be representing women scientists in this context,” says Milner. “I am very privileged for having been able to pursue my sense of curiosity within the culture of excellence at the Montreal Neurological Institute, as well as to train and encourage talented young students — driving forces throughout my career to which I attribute much of my success.”
“Brenda Milner is a great neuroscientist, and the founder of the field of neuropsychology,” says Paul Greengard, a neuroscience professor at Rockefeller University. “By virtue of her stature as a pre-eminent scientist, she has greatly advanced efforts to achieve acceptance and respect for women in science.” Greengard and his wife, Ursula von Rydingsvard, established the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize in memory of his mother. The prize was funded in part by the proceeds of Greengard’s 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.