Albert Galaburda

Albert Mark Galaburda (born 20 July 1948 Santiago, Chile) is a cognitive and behavioral neurologist with a special focus whose work has focused on brain lateralization, the finding that the two sides of the brain do different things, and on the biologic bases of developmental cognitive disorders, especially dyslexia, which relates, at least in part, to brain lateralization. He is the Emily Fisher Landau Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience, emeritus, at Harvard Medical School, the former director of the Division of Cognitive Neurology of the Department of Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), former co-director, together with psychologist Alfonso Caramazza, of the Harvard University Interfaculty Initiative on Mind Brain and Behavior, and former founding director of the Office for Diversity, Inclusion, and Career Advancement at BIDMC.

Galaburda is best known for his work on anatomical asymmetries in the brain, including the development of brain lateralization, and for his work, with Norman Geschwind, leading to the Geschwind–Galaburda Hypothesis, which proposes a link between brain lateralization, left-handedness, reproductive hormones, autoimmune and allergic disorders, and developmental cognitive diversity, both special skills and special disabilities. His laboratory work studied normal and abnormal brain development in animals to serve as models for understanding the fundamental causes developmental dyslexia, work done in collaboration with Gordon Sherman, Glenn Rosen, Holly Fitch and Joseph LoTurco. Other work included the anatomical organization of the auditory cortex in the brain of rhesus monkey, with Deepak Pandya, and in humans, with Friedrich Sanides. Additional collaborations, with Ursula Bellugi, Allan Reiss, Debra Mills, and Julie Korenberg, dealt with the neurobiology, genetics, and cognitive psychology of Williams Syndrome.

Galaburda arrived in the US from Chile at age 14 and attended Beacon High School, Beacon, NY, until graduation in 1965. Following high school graduation, he attended the Six-Year Liberal Arts-Medicine Program at Boston University School of Medicine, graduating with honors with an AB-MD degree in 1971. He then completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Neurology at Boston City Hospital, now Boston Medical Center. He was trained in Medicine under Norman Levinsky and in Neurology under Norman Geschwind. After completion of his training, he joined the Department of Neurology at BIDMC and the Neurology Faculty at Harvard Medical School, where he divided his time among clinical work, research, and teaching. He received continuous research funding from the National Institutes of Health from 1979 through 2015, during which time he published over 300 research and review articles and wrote and edited several books related to his research. He has an honorary MS degree from Harvard University and was awarded the Pattison Prize in Neuroscience, the Scientist of the Year Award from the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities, the American Academy of Neurology Decade of the Brain invited speaker, first incumbent of the Emily Fisher Landau endowed chair of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, the Neuronal Plasticity Prize from the IPSEN Foundation of France, the Harold Amos Faculty Diversity Award from Harvard Medical School, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Behavioral Neurology from the American Academy of Neurology. More recently, he received The Dyslexia Foundation's Einstein Award, which honors an individual who has made significant contributions to increasing our understanding of dyslexia and improving the lives of individuals with dyslexia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Galaburda, Albert
1948 births
Living people
Chilean neurologists
Scientists from Santiago, Chile
Boston University School of Medicine alumni
Harvard Medical School faculty
Dyslexia researchers