MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London
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Tim Bliss will give the Royal Society Croonian Lecture 30 May
28 May 2012
Tim Bliss, formerly head of NIMR's Division of Neurophysiology, will deliver the Royal Society’s annual Croonian Lecture on 30 May 2012. This prize lecture is the premier lecture in the biological sciences and is delivered annually at the Royal Society in London.
Tim Bliss (pictured) has been a key figure in neuroscience research at NIMR, leading a productive and internationally renowned research program at Mill Hill spanning four decades. After joining the staff of NIMR in 1967 he became keenly interested in the processes underlying learning and memory. It was his seminal studies with Terje Lømo in Per Andersen’s lab in Oslo in the late 1960’s that uncovered the phenomenon of synaptic long-term-potentiation (LTP), one of the major cellular processes underlying learning and memory. He published the first detailed account of LTP in 1973. Tim’s work generated many important further questions such as: how long could LTP last; what were the molecular mechanisms of LTP; was the origin pre-synaptic (an increase in transmitter release) or post-synaptic (an increase in response to transmitter) or both; could LTP be evoked and detected at a single synapse. Over his productive career Tim and his many colleagues and collaborators have provided answers to many of these questions. Tim’s contributions to neuroscience have been widely recognised.
Tim was elected FRS in 1994 and he has become one of the most prominent and highly cited neuroscientists in the world, with numerous prizes, honours and awards. He became Head of the Division of Neurophysiology in 1988, and head of the Neurosciences Group in 1996 and he has nurtured a generation of neuroscientists now flourishing in labs all over the world. Although Tim formally retired in 2006 he continues as a visiting worker.
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