Robert H Wurtz

Scientist Emeritus
Visuomotor Integration Section
National Eye Institute
United States of America

Scientist Ophthalmology
Biography

Dr. Robert Wurtz received his A.B. from Oberlin College in chemistry and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in physiological psychology, where he worked under James Olds on intra-cranial self-stimulation. He did postdoctoral research at Washington University in St. Louis, at the NIH, and at the Physiological Laboratory at Cambridge University. He joined the Laboratory of Neurobiology, NIMH in 1966, where he began studies on the visual system of awake, behaving monkeys, and became the founding Chief of the NEI Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research in 1978. He remains in the Laboratory as an NIH Distinguished Investigator. Dr. Wurtz has served as President of the Society for Neuroscience and has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Among his awards and honors are the Karl Spencer Lashley Award of the American Philosophical Society, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association, the Ralph W. Gerard Prize of the Society for Neuroscience, the Dan David Prize for Brain Sciences, and the Gruber Prize in Neuroscience.

Research Intrest

Ophthalmology

List of Publications
Cavanaugh J, Monosov IE, McAlonan K, Berman R, Smith MK, Cao V, Wang KH, Boyden ES, Wurtz RH. Optogenetic inactivation modifies monkey visuomotor behavior. Neuron. 2012 Dec 6;76(5):901-7.
Joiner WM, Cavanaugh J, FitzGibbon EJ, Wurtz RH. Corollary discharge contributes to perceived eye location in monkeys. Journal of neurophysiology. 2013 Nov 15;110(10):2402-13.
Joiner WM, Cavanaugh J, Wurtz RH. Compression and suppression of shifting receptive field activity in frontal eye field neurons. Journal of Neuroscience. 2013 Nov 13;33(46):18259-69.