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Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney

Mr. Speaker, I enthusiastically honor today Dr. Paul Greengard, the 2000 Nobel Prize winner in medicine, who resides and teaches in my district. Dr. Greengard received the Nobel Prize for his discovery of how dopamine--a human neurotransmitter that controls one's movements, emotional responses, and ability to experience pleasure and pain--affects the central nervous system. His advancements in the field of neuroscience have greatly increased our understanding of the relationships between neurobiological chemicals and some of the world's most widespread neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, and Schizophrenia. Such an achievement is one I hold in tremendous regard and I truly hope my colleagues recognize the importance of Dr. Greengard's groundbreaking discovery.

Neurological diseases touch most every human being in some way. As the founder and Co-Chair of the Congressional Working Group on Parkinson's Disease, I am especially spirited by Dr. Greengard's research. I sincerely hope that medical and academic professionals, buoyed by Dr. Greengard's achievements, continue their pursuit of uncovering the causes of the most pressing neurological disorders.

Dr. Greengard is a genuinely fascinating individual. He currently serves as the head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at The Rockefeller University in new York City and is the director of the Zachary and Elizabeth M. Fisher Center for Research on Alzheimer's Disease, also at Rockefeller. The Fisher Center, where I serve as a member of the Board of Trustees alongside Fisher CEO Michael Stern, is an extraordinarily valuable research center where Dr. Greengard has made pioneering discoveries in neuroscience which provide a more conceptual understanding of how the nervous system functions at the molecular level. His research into the abnormalities associated with Dopamine serves as a window through which scientists can examine the effects that Dopamine has on psychiatric disorders of human beings, such as substance abuse and Attention Deficit Disorder.

Dr. Greengard has dedicated his life to scientific exploration. Since 1953, when he received his Ph.D. in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Greengard has worked as a scientific professional in every sense of the word. From his days as a scholar at Cambridge University in London, and years as a professor of pharmacology at Yale University, Dr. Greengard has possessed a passion for knowledge into the scientific basis of human existence. His life is nothing short of an admirable testament to the joy of scholarship and the rewards of knowledge.

Mr. Speaker, I am immeasurably proud to have such an esteemed American living and working within my district. Dr. Greengard's Nobel Prize is a well-deserved honor and a tremendous reward for his dedication and tireless pursuit of scientific truth.