Paul Greengard biography
Date of birth : 1925-12-11
Date of death : -
Birthplace : New York,U.S.
Nationality : American
Category : Science and Technology
Last modified : 2011-10-07
Credited as : Neuroscientist, Nobel Prize for Medicine, Jewish
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Jewish by heredity, Paul Greengard was raised Episcopalian after his mother died in childbirth and his father remarried. After college he was offered a graduate school scholarship funded by the Atomic Energy Administration, and he needed the financial assistance. Greengard, however, turned it down, unwilling to be involved in weapons-based research. Instead he went into biophysics, studied under Nobel laureate Haldan K. Hartline, and spent his career unraveling the mysteries of how nerve cells function and communicate with each other.
Asked to explain what he had done to win the Nobel Prize in 2000, Greengard replied, "Damned if I know," chuckled, and added "Let me think about this just for a minute." Greengard's work showed how the nervous system interacts with dopamine and other neurotransmitters, and led to the development of important new medications for neurological and psychiatric disorders. His Nobel honors were shared with Swedish researcher Arvid Carlsson and Eric R. Kandel of Columbia University, for their related but independent work.
He used his Nobel cash endowment -- several hundred thousand dollars -- to fund the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize, named in honor of the mother he never knew. The award is now presented annually by Rockefeller University, honoring the accomplishments of women in science. His wife, Ursula von Rydingsvard, is a well-known sculptor.
Awards:
Dickson Prize 1977
Nobel Prize for Medicine 2000 (with Arvid Carlsson and Eric R. Kandel)
Geigy Biochemist (1959-67)
German Ancestry
Jewish Ancestry
Russian Ancestry
