Rutgers-Newark Honors Top Neuroscientist

On behalf of the Rutgers-Newark community, Provost Steven J. Diner will be awarding Dr. Gy�rgy Buzsáki with the Provost's Distinguished Research Award on Thursday, October 26.

Buzsáki, who earned his doctorate from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, has been working at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience since 1990. His exemplary scholarship and research in the field of behavioral neuroscience has earned him numerous accolades, including the Pierre Gloor Award (1997), the College de France Distinguished Professor (1998), and the ISIHighlyCited Award, which is given to the 250 most cited researchers in various scientific fields. With over 200 peer-reviewed papers under his belt - some of which appear in journals like Science and Nature - Buzsáki is very well-known in the field.

The Distinguished Research Award is given to Rutgers-Newark faculty who have, according to Diner, undertaken "exceptional scholarly work on a subject of fundamental intellectual importance." Recipients must also be able explain their research in general terms, regardless of how technical the actual research is.

"The nominating committee" said Diner in a prepared statement, "had concluded that the unparalleled distinction of his scholarship and the appeal of his research to a broad audience make him the ideal choice for the award."

In addition to the Distinguished Research Award, Buzsáki will receive $5000 as an honorarium.

Needless to say, Buzsáki has no complaints.

"I feel great, honored. I've been here 15 years at Rutgers, and it's nice to have [the award]. It's one thing to have it come from outside, but when it comes from inside…it feels like family. And I think that everyone [in the department] is happy that a neuroscientist got it" he said.

Buzsáki's current research focuses on how information is processed, transmitted, and stored in the brain through learning how neurons interact with each other and differ from their computer counterparts, which operate at higher frequencies and are not self-correcting (e.g., cannot tell if they have too much, too little, or irrelevant information on something) and have comparatively high error rates.

Neurons also have the noted advantage of being able to rebuild large wholes from relatively smaller input.

"Let's say you and I both see the same movie. If I give you just a couple of sentences about a scene, you'd be able to reconstruct the entire movie from just those sentences," Buzsáki said in an interview.

Buzsáki and his students employ the use of small silicon chips in the brains of rats and mice that allows them access to the rodents' neurons and to monitor activity. Though their neural circuitry is simpler than a human's, there should be basic similarities.

Buzsáki's research may have relevant outcomes for epilepsy and diseases impacting memory storage, such as Alzheimer's. As for the realm of computer science, his research may lead to smarter search engines. Perhaps the people at Google could stand to learn a thing or two.