BUSM’s Conan Kornetsky to Receive Humanitarian Award for Career in Addiction Research

Conan Kornetsky, PhD, director of the laboratory of behavioral pharmacology and professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at BUSM, has been selected to receive the 2011 Bernard Lown University of Maine Alumni Humanitarian Award for his research on the neural mechanisms involved in the behavioral effects of drugs. Kornetsky will accept the award at the University of Maine on June 4.

Kornetsky graduated from the University of Maine in 1948 before earning a PhD in psychology from the University of Kentucky in 1952. During his tenure as a graduate student he carried out research at the United States Public Health Service Hospital and prison examining the treatment and incarceration of drug addicts. From 1952 until 1959 he was a research scientist at the NIMH in Bethesda, Maryland. He joined the faculty of BUSM in 1959 where his research has focused primarily on the brain’s motivational systems and how drugs affect them. At BU his research has led to the development of a quantitative technique for the direct measurement of activity of the brain reward system and how that system is paramount in the rewarding effects of abused substances including heroin and cocaine. His most recent work has investigated the manner in which the brain reward system is involved in the perception of pain.

“I feel honored to be the recipient of the 2011 Bernard Lown University of Maine Alumni Humanitarian Award,” said Kornetsky. “As a researcher at NIMH in Maryland I, along with colleagues, categorized some of the primary intellectual impairments of schizophrenic patients. At Boston University I have been involved in the development of methods to actively measure the neurobehavioral effects of addicting drugs as well as experiments that we hope will be significant in the control of pain.”

The Bernard Lown University of Maine Humanitarian Award is given to University of Maine graduates who distinguish themselves in service to humanity and was created in honor of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate for whom it is named. Kornetsky will be the 11th recipient of the award since it was first given in 1988.