Kathryn Mary Murphy facts for kids
Kathryn Mary Murphy is a super smart Canadian scientist. She studies how our brains grow and change. She also looks at how our brains can adapt and learn new things.
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Meet Kathryn Murphy: A Brain Explorer
Kathryn Murphy is a famous Canadian neuroscientist. A neuroscientist is a scientist who studies the brain and nervous system. She teaches at McMaster University and has done amazing research. She helps us understand how our brains develop from when we are babies. She also studies how our brains keep changing throughout our lives.
Her Journey in Science
Kathryn Murphy was born in Calgary, Alberta. She grew up in Burlington, Ontario. She went to the University of Western Ontario for her first degree. Then, she studied at Dalhousie University for her Master's and Ph.D. degrees.
While at Dalhousie, she received special scholarships. These included a Ross C. Purse scholarship from the CNIB. She also got an NSERC Doctoral scholarship. NSERC stands for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
After her studies, she went to the University of California, Berkeley School of Optometry. She worked there as a researcher. She received special fellowships from groups like Fight For Sight and NSERC. These fellowships helped her continue her important brain research.
In 1994, she became a professor at McMaster University. She even started the neuroscience program there! Before McMaster, she was at McGill University. At McGill, she won a University Research Fellowship from NSERC. She also received a Sloan Research Fellowship. This was from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
For ten years, from 2007 to 2017, she was a director. She led the McMaster Integrated Neuroscience Discovery & Study program. This program is often called MiNDS.
What Does a Neuroscientist Do?
Kathryn Murphy's research looks at how the human brain changes. She studies these changes as we grow up. She also studies how our brains change throughout our whole lives.
Her work helps us understand how our brains develop. It also shows how they can stay flexible and learn new things. This is called brain plasticity.
Helping Other Scientists
Kathryn Murphy has also helped other scientists. She has been a Chair and a Scientific Officer. She has also been a Reviewer for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). These groups help decide which research projects get funding.
In 2018, she was the editor of a book. The book was called Synaptosomes. It was published in the NeuroMethods Series by Springer-Nature. The book's special number is ISBN: 978-1-4939-8738-2.
