Neurobiologist awarded Presidential Early Career Award

Friday, August 25, 2006

AUSTIN, Texas—Dr. Nace Golding, assistant professor of neurobiology, was presented with a Presidential Early Career Award in a ceremony on July 26 at the White House, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to outstanding scientists beginning their independent careers.

Left to right: John Marburger, director of the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. Nace Golding, and Walter Schaffer, Senior Scientific Advisor for Extramural Research, Office of Extramural Research at the National Institutes of Health

Golding received the award for his promising research focused on how neurons in the mammalianbrain process sound. He seeks to understand the neurobiological basis of human hearing, which has implications for the development of behavioral strategies that address communication disorders of the central nervous system.

Golding obtained his doctor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996. As a graduate student, he earned awards for outstanding doctoral research from the Sigma Xi Foundation, University of Wisconsin and the National Science Foundation. He has received several competitive funding awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is funded by NIH’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the institute that nominated him for the Presidential Award.

The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers program was created when President Clinton commissioned the National Science and Technology Council to honor and support the extraordinary achievements of young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers in the fields of science and technology.