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UA Psychologist Elected to National Academy of Sciences

by Alexis Blue

ur aging brains, as Carol Barnes Barnes, who holds the UA’s Evelyn “Over the course of her remarkable career,
Ohas discovered, are surprisingly F. McKnight Chair for Learning and Dr. Barnes has reshaped our understanding
resilient. They can adapt, rewire, even Memory in Aging, is internationally of the aging brain,” says UA President Robert
reshape their 100 billion cells and 100 recognized for her groundbreaking C. Robbins. “She continues to do cutting-edge
trillion synapses. research on how the brain changes research that is fundamental to understanding
And now, her life’s work on normal during the course of normal aging how we can live longer and healthier lives,
aging, which virtually defined a new and the consequences those changes both physically and cognitively, and she has
field in neuroscience, has earned her have on memory and information positioned the UA to be a worldwide leader
the highest U.S. honor for a scientist: processing. in research on long-term human wellness.
membership in the National Academy of Driven by the philosophy that Dr. Barnes is a titan in her field, and I am very
Sciences. scientists cannot fully understand proud that she is being recognized in this way.”
Barnes, University of Arizona age-associated brain disorders such “The election to the National Academy of
Regents’ Professor of Psychology, was as Alzheimer’s disease until they Sciences is a great honor for me personally,
one of 84 new members elected recently understand normal brain aging, especially because it indicates a scientific
to the academy, along with 21 foreign her research involves a variety of community-wide appreciation of the
associates, in recognition of their behavioral, electrophysiological and importance of understanding the neurobiology
distinguished achievements in original molecular biological approaches to the of brain aging and its impact on cognition,”
research. Barnes is the only new member study of the brain. says Barnes, who joined the UA Department of
from Arizona. Psychology in 1990 and was named a Regents’
Professor in 2006.
“Of course, my election to the NAS would
not have been possible without collaboration
of many colleagues, students and support staff
with whom I have had the good fortune to
work with over more than 40 years,” she says.
Barnes co-founded the UA’s Division
of Neural Systems, Memory and Aging, a
dedicated research unit for the study of brain
mechanisms of learning and their changes
with age, which she continues to direct. She
also is director of the UA’s Evelyn F. McKnight
Brain Institute and a member of the UA’s BIO5
Institute.
Barnes has published hundreds of journal
articles, has received numerous awards for her
work and has been continuously funded for
her research by the National Institute on Aging
since 1982. She also is a longtime member and
past president of the Society for Neuroscience,
the largest body of scientists in the world who
study the brain.

Carol Barnes / University Communications photo

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