1986: Poggio

The second annual Golden Brain Award was won by Gian Franco Poggio, professor of neurobiology at The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Poggio discovered how the brain perceives three-dimensional space from the nerve impulses it receives from both eyes, according to Elwin Marg, who was the Foundation's executive officer.

Poggio earned his M.D. degree at the University of Genoa School of Medicine in 1951 and joined the Department of Physiology at the Johns Hopkins University in 1957. He was appointed professor of physiology in 1975 and professor of neurobiology in 1980.

The Golden Brain, sculpted by Professor Florence Resnikoff of the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, is a gold model of a human brain on a pedestal ten inches high. The award was established by the Minerva Foundation to recognize outstanding original discoveries in vision and brain research.