Rodolfo Llinás

Rodolfo Llinás
Rodolfo Llinás Riascos
Born (1934-12-16) 16 December 1934 (age 88)
Bogotá, Colombia
NationalityColombian and American
Alma materPontificia Universidad Javeriana and Australian National University
Known forPhysiology of the cerebellum, the thalamus, Thalamocortical dysrhythmia as well as for his pioneering work on the inferior olivary nucleus, on the squid giant synapse and on human magnetoencephalography (MEG)
AwardsRalph W. Gerard Prize (2018)
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroscience
InstitutionsNYU School of Medicine
Doctoral advisorSir John Eccles

Rodolfo Llinás Riascos (born 16 December 1934) is a Colombian and American neuroscientist. He is currently the Thomas and Suzanne Murphy Professor of Neuroscience and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Physiology & Neuroscience at the NYU School of Medicine. Llinás has published over 800 scientific articles.

Early life

Llinás was born in Bogotá, Colombia. He is the son of Jorge Enrique Llinás (a surgeon of Spanish descent, whose family arrived in Colombia at the end of the 19th century) and Bertha Riascos. He was motivated to study the brain by watching his grandfather Pablo Llinás Olarte working as a neuropsychiatrist. Llinás describes himself as a logical positivist.

Education and early research

Llinás went to the Gimnasio Moderno school in Bogotá and graduated as a medical doctor from the Pontifical Xavierian University in 1959. During his medical studies he had the opportunity to travel to Europe and there he met several researchers in Spain, France and finally Switzerland, where he participated in neurophysiology experiments with Dr. Walter Rudolf Hess, Nobel Prize in Physiology, Medicine, professor and director of the Department of the Institute of Physiology of the University of Zurich. Additionally, while studying medicine he made a theoretical thesis on the visual system under the tuition of neurosurgeon and neurophysiologist Fernando Rosas and the mathematician Carlo Federici at the National University of Colombia. He received his PhD in 1965 from the Australian National University working under Sir John Eccles.

Personal life

By graduation in Australia, he was very interested in the biological basis of the mind. During this time he met his future wife who was studying philosophy. His two sons, Drs. Rafael and Alexander Llinas, are also physicians. His wife, Gillian Llinas (née Kimber) is an Australian philosopher of mind. Llinás was a scientific advisor during the establishment of an interactive science museum located in Bogotá, Colombia called Maloka Museum. In 2018, Llinás donated a T-Rex skeleton to the museum and helped to design a model of the nervous system for the dinosaur fossils.

Work

He has studied the electrophysiology of single neurons in the cerebellum, the thalamus, the cerebral cortex, the entorhinal cortex, the hippocampus, the vestibular system, the inferior olive and the spinal cord. He has studied synaptic transmitter release in the squid giant synapse. He has studied human brain function using magnetoencephalography (MEG) on the basis of which he introduced the concept of Thalamocortical dysrhythmia.

Career

Llinás has occupied a number of positions.[citation needed]

  • Research fellow, Massachusetts General Hosp.-Harvard University, 1960–61
  • National Institutes of Health research fellow in physiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1961–63
  • Associate professor, University Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1965–66
  • Associate member, American Medical Association Institute Biomed. Research, Chicago, 1966–68
  • Member, American Medical Association Institute Biomed. Research, Chicago, 1970
  • Head neurobiology unit, American Medical Association Institute Biomed. Research, Chicago, 1967–70
  • Associate professor neurology and psychiatry, Northwestern University, 1967–71
  • Guest professor physiology, Wayne State University, 1967–74
  • Professorial lecturer pharmacology, University Ill.-Chgo., 1967–68
  • Clinical professor, University Ill.-Chgo., 1968–72
  • Professor physiology, head neurobiology div., University of Iowa, 1970–76
  • Prof., chairman physiology and biophysics, New York University, New York City, 1976—2011
  • Thomas and Suzanne Murphy professor neuroscience., New York University, 1985—
  • University Professor, Department of Neuroscience and Physiology., New York University, 2011—

Contributions

Llinás is known for his many contributions to neuroscience, however, his most important contributions are the following:

Memberships and honors

Llinás is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1986),[1] the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1996),[2] American Philosophical Society (1996), the Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (Spain) (1996) and the French Academy of Science (2002). Dr. Llinás has received honorary degrees from the following universities:

Dr. Llinás has received the following awards:

  • UNESCO Albert Einstein medal (1991)
  • Order of Boyaca Awarded President of Colombia for exceptional service to Colombia (1992)
  • Bernard Katz Award Biohysical Society, Washington USA (2012)[3]
  • Gold Medal of CSIC [es], Spanish National Research Council, Madrid, Spain (2012)[4]
  • Cajal Diploma given by Queen Sofia of Spain Madrid, Spain (2013)[citation needed]
  • Ragnar Granit Lecture and Award, Nobel Institute, Stockholm, Sweden (2013)
  • Castilla del Pino Lecture and Award Cordoba, Spain (2015)[5]
  • Nansen Neuroscience Lecture and award Norwegian Academy of Science, Oslo, Norway (2016)[6]
  • Scholar of the Year Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (2016)[7]
  • Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience Society for Neuroscience, (2018) [8]

He was the chairman of NASA/Neurolab Science Working Group, in 2011 received University Professor Distinction from New York University [9] and in 2013, the NYU Neuroscience Institute created the Annual Rodolfo Llinás Lecture Series in recognition of his contributions to the field of neuroscience.

Filmography

  • Llinas, el cerebro y el universo. Documentary film, by Gonzalo Argandoña, Cabala Producción Audiovisual, (2018) RTVCplay [10]

Selected bibliography

Llinás is the author of more than 20 book chapters and has edited several books on neuroscience.

Books

Book chapters

  • Llinas R, Rivary U. Perception as an oneiric-like state modulated by the senses. Chapter 6. In: Koch C. Large-scale neuronal theories of the brain. Bradford Book. (1994). ISBN 9780262111836
  • Llinas RR., Walton KD. Cerebellum. Chapter 7. In: Shepherd GM. The synaptic organization of the brain. 4th Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. (1998) ISBN 0195118243
  • Llinas RR., Walton KD., Lang EJ. Cerebellum. Chapter 7. In: Shepherd GM. The synaptic organization of the brain. 5th Ed. Oxford University Press. (2004) ISBN 0195159551
  • Llinas, R. R. Neuroscientific basis of consciousness and dreaming. Chapter 3.6. In: Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 8th ed. (2005).
  • Llinás, R. Electrophysiology of the Cerebellar Networks. Comprehensive Physiology (2011). Supplement 2. Handbook of Physiology, The Nervous System, Motor Control. doi:10.1002/cphy.cp010217 ISBN 9780470650714
  • Llinas RR., Walton K. Central pain: a thalamic deafferentation generating thalamocortical dysrhythmia. Chapter 4. In: Saab CY. Chronic pain and brain abnormalities. Academic Press-Elsevier (2014). ISBN 9780123983893
  • Llinas, RR. Oscillation in the inferior olive neurons: Functional implication. Chapter 39. pp. 293–298. In: Essentials of Cerebellum and Cerebellar Disorders: A Primer for Graduate Students. Springer (2016) ISBN 978-3-319-24551-5
  • Llinas, R. R. Consciousness and Dreaming from a Pathophysiological Perspective: The Thalamocortical Dysrhythmia Syndrome. Chapter 3.5. In: Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 10th ed. (2017). ISBN 978-1-4511-0047-1

Selected review articles


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