Release date: 15-Jun-05
Contact: Beverly Cox Clark at 404-712-8780 or beverly.clark@emory.edu

Emory Neuroscientist Wins Presidential Award

Donna Maney, an Emory University assistant professor of psychology, is the recipient of a 2004 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the nation's highest honor for professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers, the White House announced June 13. She is the third consecutive Emory scholar to receive the award.

Maney researches the neural circuitry underlying communication behavior, work that intersects many different fields -- including psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology. In particular, she is interested in how animals perceive, process and respond appropriately to social signals. The research combines the study of free-living songbirds in their natural environments with that of wild-caught captive animals under controlled conditions.

"We are delighted that Donna Maney's creative and important research is being recognized in this way. She is certainly among the most promising young scientists in the country who are exploring the complex interactions between sensory experience and mechanisms of gene expression. She is very deserving of this award and we are honored to have her on our faculty," says Elaine Walker, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and chair of the department.

Maney, who joined Emory in 2002, was the recipient last year of a National Science Foundation Faculty and Career Development Award of more than $500,000, which will fund her songbird research for the next five years. These highly sought-after and competitive awards are given to researchers who not only show tremendous promise in their fields but also develop innovative techniques to incorporate into their teaching.

Under her NSF grant, Maney's research team is exploring the distribution of neuropeptides, their receptors, and socially induced brain activity in groups of birds that naturally differ in their social behavior. The group also is characterizing a system of brain regions specialized to process social information. In the process, they are developing tools to study social neuroscience in animals' natural habitats.

Partly because of her association with the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, an NSF Science and Technology Center, Maney's laboratory is accessible to undergraduates, post-baccalaureate students and public high school teachers participating in a variety of local education programs. Maney encourages undergraduate research in her lab, and has many students participate in the collection of behavioral data, histology, microscopy and the communication of results. Her students have been included as authors on published papers and abstracts.

An experienced writing instructor, Maney also emphasizes writing skills in her teaching at Emory. She has developed an undergraduate writing course in neuroscience and led a faculty workshop on bringing writing into the undergraduate science curriculum. In addition to her work at Emory, Maney is developing an ongoing study that will provide hands-on research experience to DeKalb County public high school students enrolled in an ornithology course at Fernbank Science Center.

The Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, established in 1996, honor the most promising new researchers in the nation within their fields. Eight federal departments and agencies annually nominate scientists and engineers at the start of their careers whose work shows the greatest promise to benefit the agency's mission. Participating agencies award these beginning scientists and engineers up to five years of funding to further their research in support of critical government missions.

Joining 57 other researchers, Maney accepted her award in a ceremony led by John H. Marburger III, science advisor to President George W. Bush and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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