CHAMPAIGN, Ill. William T. Greenough has been appointed director of the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois. A professor of psychiatry, of psychology, of bioengineering and of cell and structural biology, Greenough had served as interim director since 2000. The center is an interdisciplinary forum for scholarly interaction at the Urbana campus and sponsors workshops and seminars featuring distinguished scholars and artists.
Throughout his career, Greenough has sought to understand the brain mechanisms underlying learning and memory and is a renowned investigator of experience-related neuronal plasticity in the mammalian brain. Greenoughs recent research has focused upon the protein FMRP and its deficiency as a causal factor in fragile X mental retardation.
Greenough has achieved numerous awards and distinctions during his career, including appointment as the Swanlund Endowed Chair in Psychology in 1998. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Greenough also is a fellow of the American Psychological Society and the recipient of its William James Fellow Award for his research. Greenough also received the American Psychological Associations Distinguished Scientific Contribution award, the Fragile X Foundation William Rosen Award for Outstanding Research and the Oakley-Kunde Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Education.
Greenough earned his bachelors degree at the University of Oregon in 1964. He received his masters and doctoral degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1966 and 1969, respectively.
Greenough joined the UI faculty in 1968. His appointment as director of the Center for Advanced Study took effect Nov. 16.
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