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Paul Greengard, a 1948 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Hamilton College, has won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Greengard, a neuroscientist at The Rockefeller University in New York, and two colleagues received the award for their insights into the way information is communicated within cells. By uncovering the fundamental rules governing neuronal signaling and elucidating the many specific molecular devices by which that is achieved, Greengard has revolutionized the way in which neuroscientists investigate brain function.

Following his Hamilton graduation, Greengard received a Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University, before doing postgraduate work in England. He was professor of pharmacology at the Yale University School of Medicine in 1983 when The Rockefeller University appointed him to head its then new laboratory of molecular and cellular neuroscience. By that time, Greengard's discoveries had already been widely recognized and hailed as providing a conceptual framework for understanding how the nervous system functions at the molecular level.

A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Greengard won the Academy's gold medal in recognition of "extraordinary contributions to progress in the fields of neuroscience." In 1995, he returned to Hamilton to present the annual Plant Lecture and to receive The Alumni Achievement Medal.

Recent studies have consistently found that America's liberal arts colleges are disproportionate producers of graduates with degrees in the sciences. Alumni of these colleges also have strong representation among members of the National Academy of Sciences and recipients of the Nobel Prize.

Greengard, whose father Benjamin was a 1914 Hamilton graduate, is the second Hamilton alumnus to receive a Nobel Prize. Elihu Root, Class of 1864, former Secretary of War, Secretary of State and U.S. Senator, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912.

Announcement of Greengard's award was made this morning by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Joining Greengard in receiving the Nobel Prize are Arvid Carlsson from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Gothenburg and Eric Kandel at the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University. Additional information can be obtained at www.nobel.se.


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