Regarded internationally for his work in identification of receptors for neurotransmitters and drugs, Dr. Snyder received the prestigious recognition along with Robert Weinberg, an internationally renowned cancer biologist and founding member of the Whitehead Institute.
Dr. Snyder received his undergraduate and medical training at Georgetown University before joining the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 1980 he established the Department of Neuroscience and served as it’s director until 2006. Dr. Snyder has also served as founder and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for two biotechnology companies.
His research, honored with the 1978 Albert Lasker Award and 2005 National Medal of Science, has led to many advances in the understanding of molecular neuroscience deriving from his identification of receptors for neurotransmitters and drugs, and from his elucidation of the action of psychotropic agents. Among other findings, he established gases as a new class of neurotransmitters and drugs, including nitric oxide and carbon monoxide and demonstrated the role of nitric oxide in mediating glutamate transmission. He has been a member of the Scientific Council of NARSAD (now the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation) since its inception in 1986 and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He received the NARSAD Lieber Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Schizophrenia Research in 2001 and its Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience in 2003.
This is only the third time the Salk Institute has bestowed this distinction in it’s 55-year history.