MCB faculty Joshua Sanes is the 2019 recipient of the W. Maxwell Cowan Award for achievement in the study of neural development. The biennial award was established in 2004 by the Cajal Club, which is one of the oldest neuroscience societies in the United States, and the journal publisher Wiley-Blackwell.
The Cowan Award’s namesake is the developmental neuroscientist W. Maxwell Cowan, who served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Comparative Neurology from 1968-1980 and as Chief Scientific Officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) from 1988-2000.
Sanes received the award during a ceremony at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting. Past notable recipients of the Cowan Award include Carla J. Shatz of Stanford and Fred H. Gage of the Salk Institute.
