Dr. Zatorre’s research explores the functional and structural organization of the human brain using neuroimaging and behavioral methods. His research concerns the properties of the auditory cortex and related structures that enable music and other complex cognitive functions. He and his collaborators have published over 150 scientific papers on a variety of topics including pitch perception, musical imagery, absolute pitch, music and emotion, perception of auditory space, and brain plasticity in the blind and the deaf. In 2002 the Canadian Institutes of Health Research granted him a Senior Investigator Award, and in 2005 he was named holder of a James McGill chair in Neuroscience. In 2006 he became the founding co-director of the international laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound research (BRAMS), a new consortium dedicated to cognitive neuroscience of auditory processing, established by a $14 million infrastructure grant from the Canadian Fund for Innovation. In 2007 he was named a Killam scholar.

I am extremely grateful to my institution for naming me a Killam

Scholar, and to the Foundation for its continued support of the Montreal

Neurological Institute. The MNI uses the Killam funds for many useful

purposes, notably for scholarships and other student support. Several of

my PhD students have in fact benefited from this support in the past.

Without this ongoing support, our ability to continue to make progress

in neuroscience would be significantly hindered. It is of course a great

honour for me to be associated with the prestigious Killam name. But

more important I think is the overall institutional benefit, which is

one of the reasons that the "Neuro" is the special place that we all

feel it to be.

                If I may be allowed a personal anecdote, I clearly remember the day

when I first visited Montreal when I was still an undergraduate student

in psychology at Boston University. I had already heard of the Neuro,

and its fame as a neurological centre, and wanted to see it for myself.

I stood across the street from it, not daring to go any further, and

vowed that I would get there one day. I already had the intuition that

the Neuro was the only place where I might be able to realize the dream

of studying the brain's most intricate functions. Indeed, after more

than 25 years, I still believe that to be true. The colleagues I have

here at the Neuro, together with the overall scientific and academic

environment at McGill and elsewhere in Montreal, make this place

absolutely exceptional. On a daily basis at the Neuro I am able to

consult with a physicist about the latest advances in magnetic resonance

imaging, with a computer scientist about amazing image analysis

algorithms, or with a neurosurgeon about a patient's tumor. I don't

think there is anywhere else like it, and I cannot imagine myself

anywhere else than here.

                Just as we are proud of being associated with the Killam name, the

Foundation should be very pleased with the tremendous achievements of

the Neuro team. Together, we are very strong, and will continue to make

progress in our understanding of how the brain works.