Mortimer Mishkin (December 13, 1926 – October 2, 2021) was an American neuropsychologist, and winner of the 2009

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...

awarded in Behavior and Social Science.

Life and career

Born in

Fitchburg, Massachusetts Fitchburg is a city in northern Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The third-largest city in the county, its population was 41,946 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Fitchburg State University is located here. History ...

in December 1926, Mishkin graduated from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

in 1946, and took a 1949 M.A. and 1951 Ph.D. from

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

under Donald O. Hebb. His Ph.D. thesis was partly directed by surgeon and theorist

Karl H. Pribram Karl H. Pribram ( �pr̝̊iːbram (February 25, 1919 – January 19, 2015) was a visionary pioneer in the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, neuropsychology, holonomic brain theory, and holographic consciousness. He was describ ...

. In 2010 Mishkin won the National Medal of Science for his five decades of work on the mechanisms of cognition and memory, and the discovery that the brain processes memories in two separate processes: cognitive memory dealing with events and fresh information, and behavioral memory related to skills and habits. As of 2016 Mishkin was Chief of the Section on Cognitive Neuroscience, Laboratory of Neuropsychology,

National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the primar ...

, chartered to explore neurobiological mechanisms of perception and memory. He is also recognised for his role in establishing the two streams hypothesis on the organisation of extrastriate visual cortex (with

Leslie Ungerleider Leslie G. Ungerleider (April 17, 1946 – December 11, 2020) was an experimental psychologist and neuroscientist, previously Chief of the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition at the National Institute of Mental Health. Ungerleider was known for in ...

). Mishkin died in October 2021, at the age of 94.

Awards

* APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Psychology, 1985 * William James Fellow Award, awarded by the

Association for Psychological Science The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in r ...

, 1989 * Ariëns Kappers Medal, 1989 *

Karl Spencer Lashley Award The Karl Spencer Lashley Award is awarded by The American Philosophical Society as a recognition of research on the integrative neuroscience of behavior. The award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Karl Spencer Lashley. Recipients * 20 ...

, for "pioneering analysis of the memory and the perceptual systems of the brain, and his seminal contributions to the understanding of the higher nervous system function", 1996 * Metlife Foundation Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer's Disease, 1999 *

, 2010 *

Grawemeyer Award The Grawemeyer Awards () are five awards given annually by the University of Louisville. The prizes are presented to individuals in the fields of education, ideas improving world order, music composition, religion, and psychology. The religion awa ...

given by the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public university, public research university in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. Chartered in 1798 as the Jefferson Seminary, it became in the 19t ...

, 2012 * NAS Award in the Neurosciences, 2016

References

External links

2006 video oral history interview with Mishkin on History of Neuroscience
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mishkin, Mortimer 1926 births 2021 deaths People from Fitchburg, Massachusetts American cognitive neuroscientists National Medal of Science laureates Scientists from Massachusetts Dartmouth College alumni McGill University alumni 20th-century American scientists 21st-century American scientists Members of the National Academy of Medicine Presidents of the Society for Neuroscience APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology recipients