CAMBRIDGE, MA. February 7, 2005 Dr. Robert Desimone, Director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, announced today that the Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience, an annual award recognizing an outstanding discovery or significant advance in the field of neuroscience, has been awarded to Dr. Judith L. Rapoport, Chief of the Child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Rapoport was selected for her groundbreaking studies of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder ((OCD), and Childhood Onset Schizophrenia. Dr. Rapoport will present a public lecture at MIT, hosted by the McGovern Institute and followed by a gala awards dinner.

"Dr. Rapaport has contributed significantly to our current understanding of the human brain," said Dr. Desimone. "Her ground-breaking research in attention deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and child-onset schizophrenia have benefited thousands around the globe while fundamentally changing the way in which we view child psychiatry."

Dr. Rapoport pioneered the fields of neuroanatomy and neurochemistry ADHD studies, was the first to document that the symptoms of OCD in children and adolescents are similar to those seen in adults, and was the first to use structural magnetic resonance imaging to examine developmental changes in brain size and structure in children with schizophrenia. In addition, she is well known for, "The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing," a book that was on The New York Times Bestseller list for 10 weeks, and which brought new hope to families throughout the world.

Dr. Rapoport has been Chief of the Child Psychiatry Branch within the NIMH since 1984. Her laboratory investigates the clinical phenomenology, neurobiology and treatment of psychiatric disorders in children. She received her B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1955 and her M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1959. She obtained her clinical and research training at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston, the Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C., and the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Rapoport is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is an author or coauthor of over 350 scientific papers.

The Scolnick Prize provides an important focus for the international neuroscience community, building bridges that will promote future collaborations and an accelerated pace of neuroscience research. It consists of an award equal to $50,000 and is awarded each year to one recipient.

The award is named in honor of Dr. Edward M. Scolnick who stepped down as President of Merck Research Laboratories in December 2002, after holding Merck & Co., Inc.'s top research post for 17 years.

About the McGovern Institute at MIT

The McGovern Institute at MIT is a research and teaching institute committed to advancing human understanding and communications. Led by a team of world-renowned, multi-disciplinary scientists, The McGovern Institute was established in February 2000 by Lore Harp McGovern and Patrick McGovern to meet one of the great challenges of modern science - the development of a deep understanding of thought and emotion in terms of their realization in the human brain. Additional information is available at: http://web.mit.edu/mcgovern/.

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