CDN and MRC CNDD Director, Professor Oscar Marín, has been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in recognition of his influential discoveries in developmental neurobiology.
The Royal Society is a Fellowship of some of the world's most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. Fellows and Foreign Members are elected for life through a peer-review process based on excellence in science. There are approximately 1,700 Fellows and Foreign Members, and each year up to 52 Fellows and up to 10 Foreign Members are elected from a group proposed by the existing Fellowship.
Prof Marín was elected to the Society for his discoveries in the specification, migration and wiring of neurons in the cerebral cortex, mainly on inhibitory interneurons. Over the past 20 years, he has made seminal contributions to our understanding of the development of inhibitory circuits in the basal ganglia and cerebral cortex. His work has led to the revision of concepts entrenched in textbooks and has put forward a new vision of the neurobiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. The Marín lab’s discoveries have changed our understanding of the mechanisms controlling the organisation of the cerebral cortex and have changed the paradigm governing how we look at the aetiology of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Commenting on his election, Prof Marín said:
“I am elated - being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society is a very special recognition. It pays tribute to the hard work of current and past members of my laboratory, to whom I am extremely thankful.”