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| 1994
Award for Education in Neuroscience |
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Dr.
Floyd Bloom
 Dr. Floyd Bloom was born in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, in 1936. He attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas,
Texas, where he received an A.B. degree cum laude and then an M.D.
degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. During his
student years, he had an interest in pharmacology and, after completing
an internship at the Barnes Hospital, he sought further training in this
field at the National Institute of Mental Health's Clinical
Neuropharmacological Research Center. Here, in association with a number
of other talented investigators, Floyd Bloom initiated his correlated
pharmaco-physiological studies of fundamental mechanisms of the nervous
system.
An innovative neuroscientist with a broad-based concept of structure and
function of the nervous system, Dr. Bloom became one of the major
architects of modern neuroscience. He was the first to appreciate the
necessity for in-depth study of comprehensive neurotransmitter systems
at the anatomical, physiological and pharmacological levels. His early
correlative studies of the noradrenergic innervation of cerebellum and
cerebral cortex stand as classic examples of the value of such an
approach. Dr. Bloom was also one of the first neurobiologists to utilize
modern molecular biological techniques in a search for molecules of
importance in brain function and the characterization of brain specific
genes. Recognizing the value of computers in neuroscience, he pioneered
their application to neuro-anatomic investigations and the development
of a neuro-anatomic data base. His work has found considerable
applicability to many enigmatic disorders of the nervous system, such as
the addictive states, the dementias, and the major psychoses.
Dr. Bloom is presently Chairman of the
Department of Neuropharmacology at The Scripps Research Institute. He
previously was Director of Behavioral Neurobiology at The Salk Institute
and Chief of the Laboratory of Neuropharmacology of NIMH. A member of
the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, he has
received numerous awards, including the Pasarow Award in Neuropsychiatry
and the Hermann von Helmholtz Award, as well as a number of honorary
degrees from major universities. Beginning May 1, 1995 he is the new
Editor-in-Chief of Science Magazine.
Dr. Bloom has always maintained the
highest standard of excellence in scientific research and has trained
many neuroscientists that have gone on to develop their own laboratories
that reflect the interdisciplinary approach to brain research as
formulated and developed by him.
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