The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering has announced that Yale School of Medicine professor Pasko Rakic is the 2019 recipient of the Connecticut Medal of Science.
Rakic, who came to Yale in 1978, founded the School of Medicine’s neuroscience department and served as its chair for 37 years — the longest any department chair has held their position in Yale history.
Rakic’s research laid the groundwork for the current model for cerebral cortex development, has spurred generations of neuroscience research and has created the foundation for studies of neurological and psychiatric disorders, according to the current psychiatry chair John Krystal MED ’84, who co-nominated Rakic for the award.