President George W. Bush will honor a young University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientist July 12 as one of the Presidential Early Career Award winners for 2002.
Dr. Regina Carelli, associate professor of psychology, will receive the award during special ceremonies in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. Bush is scheduled to speak at the event.
Following the ceremony, a reception will be held. The National Institutes of Health also will host a reception for recipients July 11 on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md.
The Presidential Award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding young scientists and engineers beginning independent careers and goes to about 60 people a year. In 1996, former President Bill Clinton directed the National Science and Technology Council to create the award program to recognize and support promising professionals doing research in science and technology.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse funds Carelli's work, which focuses on the biological basis of motivated behaviors such as cocaine addiction.
Numerous investigations have demonstrated that abused drugs' reinforcing properties and those of natural reinforcers such as food and water are controlled within the brain's "reward" system. Carelli uses microelectrodes to record the activity of many neurons simultaneously in that system to help explain underlying cellular processes, which control drug-taking behaviors.
A common view is that drugs of abuse exert their reinforcing actions by tapping into a neural circuit that normally processes information about natural rewards. Carelli's research, however, comparing neuronal responses when animals work to obtain a natural reward, such as food or water, versus cocaine, showed that individual neurons clearly distinguish between the two types of reward.
In addition, she has demonstrated that neurons have specific responses to stimuli associated with cocaine reward. Her work shows how neural activity is altered by drug-taking behavior and will help identify brain processes and systems that can be targeted for drug addiction treatment.
Carelli is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Carelli of Kinnelon, N.J.
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