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ATLANTA — Regents’ Professor of Neuroscience and Biology Geert de Vries has been awarded the Daniel S. Lehrman Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology.
Established in 2006, the award honors the lifetime achievements of investigators who have an exemplary record of research, scholarship and mentorship, and who have served the field in leadership roles. Only one recipient is selected each year.
De Vries’ groundbreaking research has unveiled critical insights into sex differences in the brain. His team studies how sex hormones and chromosomes shape our brains and influence behaviors. He was the first to find that male brains produce more vasopressin than female brains. His team showed that differences like these often balance out other differences, ensuring that males and females function similarly despite differences in their brains and bodies.
De Vries has served his field extensively in roles such as president of the Organization for the Study of Sex Difference and as a member of advisory boards for the National Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institute of Health Research. He has trained generations of graduate students and postdocs, several of whom have assumed faculty positions and leadership roles.
De Vries said he is humbled by this honor and that it wouldn’t have been possible without his entire scientific community.
“I am deeply honored by this award and very grateful to my mentors, who taught me that science should be fun, and to my students, who made it so,” de Vries said.
Lindsey Cohen, interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, said de Vries exemplifies “the highest standards of academic excellence and research innovation. His groundbreaking work on sex differences in the brain has not only advanced our understanding of neuroendocrinology but has also inspired and trained the next generation of scientists.”
Cohen added that de Vries is “equally esteemed as a leader at Georgia State University.”
In addition to the Daniel S. Lehrman Lifetime Achievement Award, de Vries has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society, and he has received an Independent Scientist Award from the National Institutes of Health.
De Vries serves as chair of the Department of Biology and has served previously as director of the Neuroscience Institute and as associate vice president for research and economic development at Georgia State.
For more information on de Vries’ scientific contributions, visit his faculty profile.
Visit sbn.org to learn more about the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology.
— Story by Katherine Duplessis