This annual lectureship features a pre-eminent neuroscientist and honors Bernard W. Agranoff, a leader in biochemistry and an internationally recognized expert in the neurosciences. Dr. Agranoff is a graduate of the University of Michigan who returned as a faculty member in 1960. He served as the Director of Mental Health Research Institute (now known as the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute) from 1985 to 1995 and was the Neuroscience Laboratory Building Director from 1983-2002. His scientific career helped establish that long-term memory formation requires de novo protein synthesis and also enhanced our understanding of the processes involved in nerve regeneration. The Lectureship builds upon a career dedicated to promoting excellence in research, education, and mental health care and is an enduring legacy to those seeking to improve our understanding of the brain and apply that knowledge to help those with brain disorders.

Dr. Richard Huganir is the 2019 Agranoff Lecturer. Dr. Huganir is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience and Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His career has focused on synapses in the brain. His research has shown that the regulation of receptor function is a major mechanism for the regulation of neuronal excitability and connectivity in the brain and is critical for many higher brain processes, including learning and memory, and is a major determinant of behavior. Moreover, dysregulation of these mechanisms underlies many neurological and psychiatric diseases including Alzheimer’s, ALS, schizophrenia, autism, intellectual disability, PTSD as well as in chronic pain and drug addiction. Dr. Huganir is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.