Dr. Howard Aizenstein Wins Mathematics Alumni Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Howard J. Aizenstein, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry Charles F. Reynolds III and Ellen G. Detlefsen Endowed Chair in Geriatric Psychiatry and Professor of Bioengineering and Clinical and Translational Science, was selected to receive the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Department of Mathematics 2019 Mathematics Alumni Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement. Dr. Aizenstein attended University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where he earned his undergraduate degree in math/computer science, graduate degrees in computer science and his medical degree.
An internationally recognized expert in computational science, Dr. Aizenstein has made significant contributions to the field of geriatric psychiatry. His ongoing research has substantially increased our understanding of the brain mechanisms associated with geriatric depression and improved prevention and treatment. Early in his career, Dr. Aizenstein defined some of the important questions regarding the interaction between depression and dementia. He then used his training in computational science to identify the neural pathways involved in implicit and explicit learning using both structural and functional magnetic resource imaging. Dr. Aizenstein developed new computational methods for neuroimaging analyses that have been used by other collaborators, and which continue to advance the field of neuroimaging research in geriatric psychiatry. Throughout Dr. Aizenstein’s career, his solid foundation in mathematics and his expertise in computational science and neuroimaging have played a significant role in the success of his research.
Regarding this prestigious honor, Dr. Aizenstein remarked, “My BS in math/computer science at UIUC is the foundation for all of my professional accomplishments. It is where I learned the fundamentals of computation and symbolic representation. Now, even more than when I was a student, the UIUC math/computer science education is ideal for a research career in the health sciences.”
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Aizenstein!