Rita G. Rudel-Lucy G. Moses Lecture
Lecture History
This lecture was established by one of New York City’s great benefactors, Lucy G. Moses, to honor the memory of Dr. Rita G. Rudel. Dr. Rudel suffered an untimely death on May 21, 1984 at the height of her academic career. At the time, she was Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and Director of the Neuropsychology Unit at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Rudel had gained wide recognition for her neuropsychological investigations of neurologically impaired and developmentally learningdisabled children and was an editor of the Journal of Learning Disabilities.
Dr. Rudel received her bachelor’s degree from City College and her master’s degree from New York University. She became a member of the Department of Psychology at MIT in 1961. Over the next decade, a productive collaboration emerged between Dr. Rudel and her mentor, Professor Hans Teuber. Together they investigated many aspects of cognitive function in normal and brain-injured children.
Dr. Rudel returned to NYC in 1972 as a member of Columbia’s Department of Neurology. She later also joined the Department of Psychiatry. She continued her professional collaboration with Dr. Teuber in Boston even as she joined forces with Dr. Martha B. Denckla in New York. A stream of important neuropsychological studies emerged. Particularly novel aspects were Dr. Rudel’s emphasis, first, on providing quantitative measures of children with neurological disabilities and, second, developing new management strategies to help them cope with learning disabilities and hyperactivity. For their innovative work, Drs. Rudel and Denckla shared Columbia’s 1975 Lucy G. Moses Prize for Research in Clinical Neurology.
Most recent 2023 lecture information:
“Neuroimmune Interactions Shaping Social Behavior”
Gloria Choi, PhD
Investigator, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, MIT, Cambridge, MA
Associate Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Gloria Choi, PhD received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed her PhD at the California Institute of Technology where she worked in the laboratory of David Anderson. She was a postdoctoral research scientist in the laboratory of Richard Axel at Columbia University. She moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT in 2013, where she is now associate professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. In 2019 she was appointed as an investigator at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory.
Dr. Choi’s lab studies the interaction of the immune system with the brain and the effects of that interaction on neurodevelopment, neural circuit function and behavior. Her research program aims to unveil the molecular, cellular and neural circuit mechanisms that lead to maladaptive social behaviors. She is pursuing a distinctive approach spurred by the observation that viral infections in pregnant mothers in both humans and mice correlate with an increased frequency of neurodevelopmental disorders associated with social behavioral deficits. These studies suggest the existence of an evolutionarily conserved network of interactions between the immune and nervous systems that can modulate social interactions in the offspring.
Dr Choi has been the recipient of many honors. Most recently she was chosen to deliver the Robert W. Whitney Memorial Lecture at the National Institute of Health.
For further information, contact thb2108@cumc.columbia.edu.