The Brain Prize winners celebrated in Copenhagen
The Brain Prize winners: Professor Erin Schueman, Professor Christine Holt & Professor Michael Greenberg together with HRH the Crown Prince.
Three top international researchers, Professors Christine Holt (UK), Erin Schuman (USA) and Michael Greenberg (USA), were presented with The Brain Prize 2023 by HRH The Crown Prince at a ceremony in Copenhagen.
The Brain Prize is the world's largest prize for neuroscience. This year, the prize goes to three researchers who have given us a whole new understanding of how the brain develops, adapts to change, and how it learns throughout life.
Major breakthroughs in brain research deserve more attention, which is why a major award such as The Brain Prize is needed, says Lene Skole, CEO of the Lundbeck Foundation:
"The brain has been studied for hundreds of years, but much of it remains a mystery to science. It is necessary to understand the normal brain better so that we can become better at developing treatments and preventing the many devastating brain diseases that one in five of us is affected by,” Lene Skole and continues:
“The Brain Prize is a global award that we can all be proud of in Denmark. It celebrates the major breakthroughs in brain research – and it shines a light on the outstanding scientists who, year after year, devote their brains to making us wiser about the amazing organ that defines us as human beings.”
HRH the Crown Prince in his speech at the ceremony when presenting the prize to the prize winners:
- For more than a decade I have attended the Brain Prize ceremony, and I am very proud to be invited. Every year opens a new chapter about the brain and the scientific field devoted to its study. The Brain Prize celebration gives us an opportunity to gather outstanding neuroscientists from around the world, who have moved the field forward.
Minister for Higher Education and Science Christina Egelund also participated in The Brain Prize celebration:
“The Brain Prize creates visibility about a crucial research area and is also a great – well-deserved – recognition of three researchers who have made groundbreaking efforts and given us important new insights into the brain. Their research offers new hope for the development of treatments for brain diseases in the future. The fact that the world's largest brain research prize is Danish is also a testament to the strong international position of the Danish life science sector. I look forward to celebrating the three researchers whose work is a great inspiration to us all.”
Important basic research
Professors Christine Holt, Erin Schuman and Michael Greenberg have moved the field forward with ground-breaking results that have given us a new understanding of how the brain develops, learns and thus changes throughout life, says Jan Egebjerg, Director of Research at the Lundbeck Foundation:
- This year's laureates have provided ground-breaking new insight into brain development and plasticity with their discoveries of the basic mechanisms underlying the synthesis of proteins, the building blocks of life, in the brain. Their research has also enhanced our understanding of some of the mechanisms that may lie behind brain diseases. And it is a reminder of how important basic research is in our quest for a better understanding of the brain," says Jan Egebjerg.
The world’s largest prize for brain research is Danish. It is called The Brain Prize and is awarded once a year to one or more researchers who have made an unprecedented contribution to our knowledge about the brain. This includes research into health and diseases of all aspects of the brain, and in all disciplines – from basic neuroscience to applied clinical research.
The organisation behind prize is the Lundbeck Foundation: Denmark's largest private funder of brain research. It is the Foundation’s ambition to enhance Denmark's global position in the field of brain research, and this was the reason for establishing the prize in 2010. The prize is accompanied by a monetary award of DKK 10 million (approximately EUR 1.34 million).
The Brain Prize is a tribute to individuals from all corners of the world who devote their brains to helping ours. However, it’s aim is also to raise awareness of a research field that is of fundamental importance to explore. Because the brain’s complexity is matched only by its potential.
