European Latsis Prize 2002

The European Latsis Prize 2002 will be awarded to Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Head of the Neurocognitive Development Unit at the Institute of Child Health, University College London, for her outstanding contribution to the understanding of cognitive and language development in children with genetic disorders. The Prize ceremony will take place at the Assembly of the European Science Foundation the 28 November in Strasbourg,

The European Latsis Prize, of a value of 100 000 Swiss Francs (€68 000), is financed by the Latsis Foundation and awarded by the ESF to an individual or group who, in the opinion of their peers, has made the greatest contribution to a particular field of European research. The chosen field of the 2002 prize was “Cognitive Sciences”.

Already recognised in her early career for her outstanding contribution to the understanding of the human mind through her studies of normal child development in several areas of cognition and psycholinguistics, Professor Karmiloff-Smith switched her main research focus some fifteen years ago to understanding the nature of language and intelligence in children with genetic disorders. A particularly original facet of her work is that in her studies of both normal and atypical development she has always embraced several different areas of cognition, using multiple cross-disciplinary theoretical questions and techniques.

Professeor Paolo Legrenzi from the European Latsis prize committee states: The theoretical and empirical contributions of Annette Karmiloff-Smith are amongst the most important results of the cognitive sciences over the last thirty years. Her research on multiple areas of cognition and language, which builds on a wide range of transdisciplinary techniques, has made an enormous impact on other researchers within Europe, North America and the rest of the world.

Journalists who would like to attend the Latsis prize ceremony the 28. November 18.30 at Hilton Hotel, Strasbourg, should contact:

Johanne Martinez-Schmitt

Email:jmartinez@esf.org
Tel: +33 388 76 71 14
from the ESF communication unit.

Jens Degett

Head of Communication and Information