Nobel prize winner to get UCC doctorate

Nobel Prize winner John O’Keefe will receive an honorary doctorate at University College Cork today.

Prof O’Keefe, who is based in University College London, was recently jointly awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Norwegian neuroscientists May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser, for discovering an ‘inner GPS’ that helps the brain to navigate.

UCC is in turn recognising Prof O’Keefe with an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) in recognition of his ground-breaking contributions to neuroscience.

Nobel Laureate Professor John O'Keefe to be awarded honorary doctorate from @UCC today, in recognition of his contribution to neuroscience.

— JennïeØSullivân (@OSullivanJennie) December 15, 2014

He is the third recipient of an honorary doctorate from UCC who is also a Nobel Laureate; the other recipients being DNA pioneer Dr James Watson in 2010 and Dr Robert Wilson in 2004.

Prof O’Keefe, whose father hailed from Scarteen Lower, Newmarket, Co Cork, and whose mother from Breaffy, Co Mayo, will deliver the main lecture at a UCC symposium that also features other renowned Irish neuroscientists.

The Hippocampus in Health & Disease is organised by Science Foundation Ireland-funded Investigators Yvonne Nolan and John F Cryan of UCC’s Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience.

“The symposium will highlight how recent discoveries informs us on how the hippocampus is critical for learning and memory, which has implications for Alzheimer’s disease, aging, epilepsy and stress-related psychiatric disorders,” said Prof Cryan, who will introduce Prof O’Keefe’s at the honorary conferring.

Prof O’Keefe will deliver a lecture entitled ‘The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map: an update’ which will focus on his seminal contributions to cognitive neuroscience.

In 1971, he discovered place cells, neurons within the hippocampus that become active when one enters a particular place in the environment.