R. Suzanne Zukin, PhD (left), director of the Neuropsychopharmacology Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and professor in its Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, has been named the F.M. Kirby Professor of Neural Repair and Protection at the College of Medicine.

The endowment of Dr. Zukin with the Kirby Chair recognizes her leading role over nearly three decades on the research of the glutamate receptor. She has played an important role in furthering the understanding of how the receptor impacts disorders, including schizophrenia, Huntington's disease, and stroke.

Of her honor as the first holder of the Kirby Chair she said, "It is a great honor and a delight to receive this name and this chair.  It serves as a tribute to nearly two decades of work in our laboratory in the area of stroke research."

The F.M. Kirby Chair in Neural Repair and Protection was established by the Kirby Foundation, which supports a wide variety of scientific, medical and community organizations.

In addition to receiving the Kirby Chair endowment, Dr. Zukin is a 2009 recipient of the prestigious McKnight Foundation Neuroscience of Brain Disorders Award. She also was recently appointed a standing member of the NIH Study Section on Neural Oxidative Metabolism and Death, for the National Institute for Neurologic Disorders and Stroke. Also, she was appointed to serve on the editorial boards of two journals: "Frontiers in Neuroscience" and "Genetics & Epigenetics." Dr. Zukin currently serves on the editorial boards of the "Journal of Neuroscience," "Neurobiology of Disease" and "Molecular Brain Research," as well; during the past ten years she also has completed terms on the editorial boards of the "Journal of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology."

Dr. Zukin has been a member of the Einstein faculty since 1977.  She came to Einstein following a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Daniel Koshland at the University of California at Berkeley.  She earned her bachelor's degree at Bryn Mawr College and her PhD at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School.