(The Scientist, Vol:4, #23, pg. 22-23, November 26, 1990) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
-------- The Minerva Foundation of Berkeley, Calif., presented its 1990 Golden Brain Award on October 18 to John Allman, Hixon Professor of Psychobiology at the California Institute of Technology, in recognition of his pioneering research on how the brain processes visual information. The privately funded foundation gives the award annually to honor fundamental research on vision and the brain.
Allman, 47, earned his Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Chicago in 1971. He became interested in primate brain evolution early. However, he says, "most anthropologists don't have enough background to study evolution of the brain. I realized that I needed to become a neurobiologist." Allman, who did postdoctoral work in neurophysiology at the University of Wisconsin, joined the faculty of Caltech in 1974.
Allman is currently exploring the functions of the cortex in interpreting visual information. ...
