Auckland scientist scoops international award

An Auckland University neurobiologist who has won a prestigious international award for her work, almost didn't enter the competition because she didn't think she'd have any chance of winning.

Dr Johanna Montgomery, 33, has become the first southern hemisphere scientist to be awarded an Eppendorf and Science Prize for Neurobiology, for her research into how human brains are wired.

"I almost didn't enter it because I didn't think I had any chance of winning, and then I did win and I was just absolutely rapt," she said. "It was a very big surprise to win."

Dr Montgomery, who grew up in Dunedin, was one of four winners selected by some of the world's foremost researchers in the field of neurobiology and the editor-in-chief of the world's leading scientific journal Science.

The winners were selected based on an essay, to be published in Science, outlining their research in the past three years, together with their CVs.

Dr Montgomery said past winners had received huge international interest in their research as a result of winning the award.

"The prize is also a big thing for New Zealand neuroscience research because it's the first time anybody in this part of the world has won this award."

Recently appointed as a senior lecturer in the Medical and Health Sciences Faculty, Dr Montgomery is researching the synapses, or circuitry, that wires the brain. This circuitry underpins human behaviour, understanding, learning and memory.

"I have identified how these synapses change and form over time. I have also shown that the information-carrying abilities of the synapses is far greater than previously thought."

She will travel to Washington DC next month for the award presentation.

- NZPA