Dr. Melitta Schachner has been selected to receive a prestigious honorary doctorate degree from the University of Heidelberg—the first such honor for extraordinary achievement in the life sciences that the institution has awarded in 50 years.
In 1976, Schachner became the first chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Heidelberg, where she also led the development of the Center for Neuroscience. She later established a Center for the Study of Neurobiology at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
A member of the German Academy of Sciences, Schachner has focused her research and written prolifically on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie development, maintenance, and modifications of the adult central nervous system. She has authored more than 800 articles in peer-reviewed journals. In 1965, as a summer student at the California Institute of Technology, she studied with Max Delbrück, the last person to receive the honor that Schachner will receive in Heidelberg in November.
Congratulations, Dr. Schachner!
