22 October 2009

Tomaso Poggio, a founding member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Eugene McDermott Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and Director of the Center for Biological and Computational Learning has been awarded the Okawa Prize for his work in computational neuroscience.

The Okawa Prize is presented annually by the Okawa Foundation for Information and Telecommunications to two individuals who have made outstanding contributions to research, technological development, and business management in the information and telecommunications fields. Since its inception in 1992, the prize has been awarded to 30 Japanese and American scientists including MIT Institute Professor Emeritus Walter A. Rosenblith in 1999. Poggio is the 13th Okawa Prize winner from the United States. The Japanese winner this year is Dr. Mitsuo Kawato, Director of ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories.

According to the award citation, Poggio is being honored "for outstanding contributions to the establishment of computational neuroscience, and pioneering researches ranging from the biophysical and behavioral studies of the visual system to the computational analysis of vision and learning in humans and machines."

The prize includes a certificate, a gold medal, and a 10 million yen cash award.