Vanderbilt neuroscientist Jon Kaas elected to National Academy of Sciences

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Jon H. Kaas – Centennial Professor of Psychology, professor of cell biology and Kennedy Center Investigator at Vanderbilt University – has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

The academy, a private organization of scientists and engineers established in 1863 by an act of Congress, named 60 new American members and 15 foreign associates on May 2 "in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research." Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors a scientist can achieve.

Kaas’ election raises the total number of Vanderbilt faculty who are academy members to four. The three existing members are Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry Stanley Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry William Darby and Professor Emeritus of Physiology Charles Park.

Kaas, who came to Vanderbilt in 1972 from the University of Wisconsin, studies research is devoted to understanding the basic organization of way in which the primate and human brain is organized. HSpecifically, his work has provided important new insights into how the brain processes sensory input from the rest of the body the eyes, ears and skin and uses this information to controls the motion of arms, legs and other muscle systems. He has also made fundamental contributions to the scientific understanding of how the brain develops and how mature brains respond to injuries.

His most extensive efforts have been to determine how the visual cortex – the portion of the brain that processes information from the eyes – is subdivided into areas and modules in monkeys, and how these subdivisions are interconnected with each other and other parts of the brain to form a complete processing network. His major goal is to develop a model of how the human brain is wired for processing visual information.

Kaas’s research group is also exploring how the visual system interacts with the frontal cortex and the temporal lobe, areas of the brain that are associated with cognition and choice as well as perception and motor control.

At the same time that his studies have uncovered new details about the brain’s basic organization, Kaas and colleagues have also been studying how this organization responds to injuries that alter the flow of sensory information to the brain. For example, they have shown that orderly cortical representations of the retina and cochlea change not only during development, but also in adults who experience eye injuries and hearing damage injuries that cause major sensory deprivation. Much of their current work is aimed at determining the conditions that trigger such change and the underlying mechanisms the produce it.

Kaas is well known for his research, which was recently recognized by his receipt of the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientist Award in 1994. He is also the recipient of Vanderbilt’s Earl Sutherland Prize for Achievement in Research, the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, the Kreig Cortical Discoverer Award, and was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1991. He is also well known within the field of neuroscience as a mentor, with a number of his former students holding prestigious positions at universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wake Forest, the University of California-Davis, Indiana University and Tulane.

Contact: David F. Salisbury, (615) 343-6803
david.f.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu

-VU-