Dr. Bryan Kolb (neuroscience) has been chosen to receive the Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations (CAFA) Distinguished Academic Award for 2013. Kolb is the sixth U of L researcher to be honoured by the organization since 2007.
CAFA is the provincial organization representing academic staff associations at the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, the University of Lethbridge and Athabasca University.
The CAFA Distinguished Academic Awards are designed to recognize academic staff members at Alberta universities who, through their research and/or other scholarly, creative or professional activities, have made outstanding contributions to the wider community beyond the university.
Kolb has been described as a “founding father of behavioural neuroscience,” combining neuroscience and psychology to examine the important interplay between experiences, neuron changes and behaviour.
His research focuses on how neurons in the cerebral cortex change in response to experiences, drugs, hormones and injury, and how these changes influence behaviour. His work has fuelled new treatments to help victims of stroke, Alzheimer’s, drug abuse and head injury. Kolb was the first to demonstrate how new brain cells grow to restore cerebral function and that psychomotor stimulants produce permanent changes in neuronal structure.
Kolb is also an Adjunct Professor at both the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia. He obtained his PhD at Pennsylvania State University and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
With co-author and colleague Dr. Ian Whishaw, Kolb is the author of several books, including An Introduction to Brain and Behaviour and Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology. The latter is now in its sixth edition and is used internationally as a standard senior text. In 2008, he was awarded honorary degrees from Thompson Rivers University and UBC Okanagan.
Past University of Lethbridge faculty recipients have included Dr. Trudy Govier (Philosophy; Early Career Award, 2012); Dr. Paul Hayes (Chemistry and Biochemistry; Early Career Award 2010); Dr. Reg Bibby (Sociology; Distinguished Academic Award 2009); and Drs. Lisa Doolittle and Emily Luce (Fine Arts), who received the Distinguished Academic Award and the Early Career Awards respectively at the inaugural event in 2007.