SACRED LEGACY ARCHIVES™

Vernon Benjamin Mountcastle

1918-07-15 – 2015-01-11

Life & Legacy

Vernon Benjamin Mountcastle (July 15, 1918 – January 11, 2015) was an American neurophysiologist and Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University. He discovered and characterized the columnar organization of the cerebral cortex in the 1950s. This discovery was a turning point in investigations of the cerebral cortex, as nearly all cortical studies of sensory function after Mountcastle's 1957 paper, on the somatosensory cortex, used columnar organization as their basis.

Occupation & Career

neuroscientist, university teacher, physician

Education

Roanoke College

Accomplishments, Inventions & Publications

Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research; National Medal of Science; Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize; NAS Award in the Neurosciences; Karl Spencer Lashley Award; The Paton Lecture; International Prize by Fyssen Foundation; honorary doctorate of the University of Santiago de Compostela; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Foreign Member of the Royal Society; Ralph W. Gerard Prize; Australia Prize

Legacy Highlights

Honors & Awards

Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research · Australia Prize · Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences · Foreign Member of the Royal Society · honorary doctorate of the University of Santiago de Compostela · International Prize by Fyssen Foundation · Karl Spencer Lashley Award · Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize · NAS Award in the Neurosciences · National Medal of Science · Ralph W. Gerard Prize · The Paton Lecture

Employer

Johns Hopkins University

Organizations & Memberships

American Academy of Arts and Sciences · American Philosophical Society · French Academy of Sciences · National Academy of Sciences · Royal Society of London