Bruce S. McEwen, Ph.D.

Bruce S. McEwen, Ph.D.
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2005 Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience1998 Distinguished Investigator Grant

1998 Distinguished Investigator Grant

Bruce S. McEwen, Ph.D.

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Alfred E. Mirsky Professor

Head, Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology2005 Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience

The Rockefeller University
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bbrf awards icon Bio

Dr. McEwen’s research has contributed significantly to elucidating the impact of stress and sex hormones on the brain’s chemistry and structure. Dr. McEwen’s emphasis is on the mechanisms underlying adaptive structural plasticity. Estrogens and androgens induce new synaptic connections in the brain. They also modulate, for better or worse, damage from stroke, head trauma and seizure, as well as age-related changes in brain function. In studying both stress and sex hormones as regulators of structural plasticity in the adult brain, Dr. McEwen and his team examine sex differences and how they develop, along with the influence of early life experiences, in affecting learning, memory and predisposition towards disease.

Dr. McEwen was an assistant professor at Rockefeller in 1966 and was named Alfred E. Mirsky Professor in 1999.

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