Honorary degree citation - Bryan Kolb
By: Jane Stewart, June 2014
Mr. Deputy Chancellor, it is my honour to present to you Bryan Kolb, distinguished scholar and one of Canada’s most prominent behavioural neuroscientists.
Bryan Kolb is a native of Calgary and is Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge, where he has been since 1976.
He received both a Bachelor and Master’s degree from the University of Calgary, a Ph.D from Pennsylvania State University, and did postdoctoral work at the University of Western Ontario and the Montreal Neurological Institute. His recent work has focused on the development of the prefrontal cortex, how neurons of the cerebral cortex change in response to various developmental factors (such as hormones, experience, stress, drugs, and injury), and how these changes are related to behaviour.
Bryan Kolb’s remarkable contributions to research and scholarship place him in the highest ranks of Canadian scientists. He has played a key role in the development of science education and the promotion of neuroscience across the country, while enhancing Canada’s scientific prominence internationally. His work has fuelled the search for new treatments for victims of stroke, drug abuse, brain injury and Alzheimer’s Disease.
Bryan Kolb has held numerous leadership positions in his field. He was the inaugural director of the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, a remarkable research centre created in 2001 by his research group built up at the time when Lethbridge was largely an undergraduate institution. He is former President of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Science, and a recipient of the Hebb prize. He has a long history of service with the Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (formerly the Medical Research Council). He is a member of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research program on Child and Brain Development.
Dr. Kolb has published five books, including two textbooks with Ian Whishaw - Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology, Sixth Edition and Introduction to Brain and Behavior, Fourth Edition - and over 350 articles and chapters.
In addition to his groundbreaking research, Bryan Kolb is widely recognized for his excellence and enthusiasm in teaching. He has taught at institutions throughout North America and has been a mentor to countless undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom have gone on to pursue careers in research and teaching. Over the years, he has also selflessly given his time to the public dissemination of his research findings, nationally and internationally.
Bryan Kolb’s work on brain development has won him great recognition and numerous awards, including a Killam Fellowship from the Canada Council, a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal from the Royal Society of Canada, and Centennial Medal from the Province of Alberta, to name only a few. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Science.
Mr. Deputy Chancellor, on behalf of Senate and the Board of Governors, it is my privilege and honour to present to you Bryan Kolb, so that you may confer upon him the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
