UO psychologist Posner gets national spotlight

As Fall Quarter began, University of Oregon psychologist Michael Posner was called to the White House. Posner was among nine researchers named as winners of the 2008 National Medal of Science, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to scientists, engineers and inventors.

Posner joined the UO faculty in 1965 and has been hailed by his peers around the world as a leading pioneer who helped shape the field of cognitive neuroscience. Posner today is a professor emeritus, but he continues to active in his on-going research projects with Chinese scientist Yi-Yuan Tang, a visiting scholar, and with long-time UO colleague Mary Rothbart, who also drew national honors in 2009.

Posner's current research deals with genetic and experience-related factors in the development of brain networks underlying attention and self-regulation. His research draws on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and molecular genetic methods.

Rothbart, who in May received the 2009 Gold Medal for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology by the American Psychological Foundation, hailed Posner's selection, saying: "Mike has been a pioneer in developing measures for illuminating how the mind works and how the operations of the mind can be mapped onto activation patterns in the brain. His research effectively has linked the psychology of the mind to the biology of brain function."

Posner was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics and a master's degree in psychology in 1957 and 1959, respectively, from the University of Washington in Seattle and a doctorate in psychology in 1962 from the University of Michigan. His research has been supported by federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research, as well as several private foundations.

Among earlier awards, Posner won the Dana Foundation Award for pioneering work in medicine (1996), was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science (1988), as a fellow of the American Academy of Sciences (1986) and of the National Academy of Science (1981), and as a Guggenheim Fellow for 1979-80.