2005 Finalist Johanna Montgomery, Ph.D

For her essay "Synapses in a State: A Molecular Mechanism to Encode Synaptic History and Future Synapse Function." Dr. Montgomery was born and raised in New Zealand. She graduated from the University of Otago in 1999 with a Ph.D. in physiology. During her Ph.D. studies, Dr. Montgomery completed the Neurobiology Course at The Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She began postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. Daniel Madison at Stanford University, where she used paired whole-cell recording techniques to reveal distinct mechanisms of synapse plasticity. She then pursued further postdoctoral training with Dr. Craig Garner at Stanford University to examine the molecular aspects of synapse function. Last year, Dr. Montgomery returned to New Zealand to establish the Synaptic Function Research Group at the University of Auckland, where she is focusing on the molecular and physiological mechanisms of synapse function and plasticity.

For the full text of the essays by the Prize Winner and Finalists, see Science Online at sciencemag.com.