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Education and Degrees

BA 1968  Psychology University of California at Berkeley

MA 1969  Psychology McGill University

PhD 1972  Psychology McGill University

Postdoctoral Fellow, 1972-3 Psychiatry Yale University

DSc 1994 University of New South Wales

Visiting Scientist/Professor

1976 Sabbatical Psychology & Pharmacology University of Cambridge

1979 Sabbatical Human Anatomy University of Oxford

1983 Sabbatical Histology Karolinska Institutet

1987 Sabbatical Psychiatry Stanford University

1993 Sabbatical Neurology UCLA

An Award-winning Author and Scientist who has written 51 books and is a member of Academies in Australia and Greece. Advocate  and protector of our environment.
 
NHMRC Senior Principal Research Scientist, Neuroscience Research Australia and Conjoint Scientia Professor of Medical Sciences, The University of New South Wales.

Research Record

(a)    Publications.  50 research books, 1 novel, 161 refereed journal articles and 30 book chapters.
 

(b)    Nuclei (areas) discovered in the rat and human. He has identified 90 nuclei in the rat and human brain.
 

(c)    Homologies in mammals. Comparing rat and human, he identified 61 homologous nuclei.
 

(d)    Nuclei and homologies in birds. He identified 180 nuclei and homologies.
 

(e)    Stereotaxic spaces. He was the first to produce a reliable stereotaxic space for the brain of rats, mice, and primates, a factor facilitating neuroscience research since the 1980s.
 

(f)    Atlases. He constructed the most frequently cited atlases of the brain and spinal cord of rats, mice, monkeys, humans and birds.
 

(g)   Nomenclature. He constructed the most commonly used nomenclature and ontology for the brain and spinal cord of humans and experimental animals.

 

Impact: Most scientists working on the relation between the human brain and neurologic or psychiatric diseases, or animal models of these diseases, use his maps and concepts of brain organization. His human brain atlases are the most accurate ones for identification of deep structures and are used in surgical theatres.

 

Citation record: In the field of neuroscience, he is the author of the most cited publication internationally (The Rat Brain in Stereotaxic Coordinates; Paxinos and Watson, 1986. (http://isiwebofknowledge.com/media/pdf/MostHighlyCitedArticles.pdf). This is the third most cited book in science after Molecular Cloning and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. (63,616 citations over its 7 editions). Nine of his publications were cited over 1000 times and 46 over 100 times. In total, his works have been cited 92,774 times, 75,538 as first author.

 

Current Grant Support: He holds 2 NHMRC project grants. He is a chief investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function (20 million) and an NIH grant (USD 3 million).
Unlike most academic books, some of his atlases have been commercially successful; he was able to obtain from publishers development grants for his laboratory and to fund 8 prizes from book royalties.

 

Current Grant Reviewer: ARC CRC Reviewer, NHMRC Grant Reviewer, The NHMRC Academy, ARC OzReader. Assessor: Universities of Athens and Patras.

 

Contribution to Teaching: He wrote the internationally used textbook The Brain: an Introduction to Functional Neuroanatomy (2010). He taught psychology for 27 years and served on the Academic Board and Council of UNSW. He is currently supervising 2 postdoctoral fellows.

 

Editorial Boards of International Refereed Journals (15 in total; currently serving on the first 8)
2008+    Assoc Editor: Frontiers in Neuroanatomy     Editor-in-Chief: BrainNavigator
2004+    J Chemical Neuroanatomy     Neuroscience and Bio-behavioral Reviews
2007+    Brain Structure and Function    J of Comparative Neurology
2008+    Translational Neuroscience    Human Brain Mapping
2010+    ISRN Neurology    Posters in Neuroscience
2012+    PLoS ONE
2015+    The Turkısh Anatomical Society        J fur Hirnforschung
NeuroImage 
2013+    International Neuropsychiatric Disease Journal    J of Comparative Neurology
    

Plenary Lectures :20 international plenary lectures in the last 5 years

Contribution to the Profession
President of the Australian Neuroscience Society (ANS; 2004-5).
President, World Congress of Neuroscience (2004-7).
Chairperson, IBRO World Congress & Regional Meetings Committee (2007-11).

 

Community Service. Founder and President of the Light Rail Association (1989-2000) and another three environmental and migrant rights groups.

 

Honours and Awards
1968        The Warner Brown Memorial Prize, University of California at Berkeley
1992        The Walter Burfitt Prize, Royal Society of NSW
1994        DSc, The University of New South Wales
1997        Award for Excellence Publishing Med Science, Assoc American Publishers

1999        Disk of Sacred Truce, Intl Com of Olympic Winners; for Community Service
1999        The University of New South Wales Alumni Achievement Award
1999        The Ramaciotti Medal for Excellence in Biomedical Research
1999        FASSA (Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia)
2001        Scientia Professor, University of New South Wales (Distinguished Professor)
2002        AO Officer in Gen Division of the Order of Australia for service to Neuroscience
2003        Alexander von Humboldt Award (Germany) for contributions to neuroscience
2004        President, Australian Neuroscience Society
2004-7    President, IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience
2007        Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, The Aust Psychological Society
2008        Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Athens
2009        NHMRC Australia Fellow
2009        FAA (Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science)
2011        Honorary President, School of Psychology, City Unity College (Athens)
2012        Pioneer in Medicine Award, Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics
2012        Lifetime Achievement Award, Hellenic-Aust Chamber of Comm and Industry
2012        Academy of Athens, elected corresponding member
2013        Scientia Professor, University of New South Wales
2014        Fellow, Royal Society of New South Wales
2015        Distinguished Achievement Award, Australasian Neuroscience Society (ANS)
2015        NSW Premier's Prize for Excellence in Medical Biological Sciences
2016        Honorary Professor, University of Ioannina, Greece
2016        Honorary Doctorate, Ionian University (to be conferred in April 2017)
2016        British Medical Association Illustrated Book Award for Atlas of Human Brain
2017        Visiting Scientist, Chinese Academy of Science President’s Intl Fellowship Init

 

Prof. George Paxinos
Scientia Professor, PHD AO DSc FASSA FAA  
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