Sheila Nirenberg facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sheila Nirenberg
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| Alma mater | SUNY Albany Harvard University |
| Awards | MacArthur Award, Beckman Young Investigators Award, TED Talk, NYC BioAccelerate Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience |
| Institutions | Cornell University |
Sheila Nirenberg is an American scientist who studies the brain. She is a professor at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Nirenberg creates special devices that can talk directly to the brain. These devices are called prosthetic devices. She also works on new kinds of smart robots.
Dr. Nirenberg won a special award called the MacArthur “genius” award. Her work on treating blindness has been shown in many documentaries. She is currently a professor at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. She also started two companies. One company, Bionic Sight LLC, makes prosthetic devices. The other, Nirenberg Neuroscience LLC, works on smart robots and AI.
Early Life and School
Sheila Nirenberg grew up in Westchester, New York, in the United States. She went to the State University of New York at Albany for her first college degree. Later, she earned her advanced degree from Harvard Medical School.
While at Harvard, she worked with another scientist, Constance Cepko. They studied how the retina (the back part of your eye) develops and changes. Dr. Nirenberg worked on a new way to understand how brain circuits work.
Her Science Work
After finishing her studies, Dr. Nirenberg continued her research at Harvard University. She focused on how the brain uses codes to send messages. Later, she joined the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Then, she moved to Cornell Medical School, where she is now a full professor.
A few years later, she figured out the special code the retina uses. This amazing discovery helped her create a new way to treat blindness. Her treatment helps by sending visual information directly to the brain. It bypasses the damaged parts of the eye.
Dr. Nirenberg has shared her research in important science magazines. Her company, Bionic Sight, is now testing this treatment with blind patients.
Awards and Honors
Dr. Nirenberg has received many awards for her important work.
- Bressler Prize, 2022 (for great work in vision science)
- Barbara McClintock Women Innovator Award, 2022
- Crain's Notable Women in Tech, 2019
- MacArthur Award, 2013 (often called a "genius" award)
- Beckman Young Investigators Award
- Klingenstein Fellowship, 1998
- Frontiers of Science Award
- Stein Oppenheimer Award
