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Alan Schechter and His Former Postdocs

Where Are They Now?

BY LAURA STEPHENSON CARTER

On July 1, 1965, Alan Schechter drove his light blue VW bug to the NIH for his very first day on the job. The car didn’t last long on Maryland’s roads, but the driver is showing little sign of wear. “The fact he is still here 50 years later is a testimony to him,” Bob Adelstein told the crowd that had gathered for a symposium he helped organize to honor Schechter.

Leslie Ungerleider: Reading Faces

How the Brain Recognizes Faces and Their Expressions of Emotions

BY MANJU BHASKAR, NINDS

“Face recognition is a remarkable ability, given the tens of thousands of different faces one can recognize, automatically and effortlessly, sometimes even many years after a single encounter,” said National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) neuroscientist Leslie Ungerleider. Her research has helped to identify how different regions of the brain work together to identify faces as well as to read facial expressions of emotion.

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Andrea Burke: Rare Ambition

Finding Treatments for Rare Bone Diseases

BY LAURA STEPHENSON CARTER

The young teenage girl “just wanted to get better and look normal,” recalled NIH dental clinical research fellow Andrea Burke. The girl’s face was asymmetrical, with one eye higher than the other, and the underlying bones were deformed. “It was difficult for her to be around her peers.”