The Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology recently honored Professor Emerita Elizabeth Adkins-Regan with its Daniel S. Lehrman Lifetime Achievement Award, which is given to distinguished investigators in the field.
“Dr. Adkins-Regan embodies the spirit of Danny Lehrman, with a career of eminent scholarship and a record of outstanding mentorship of scientists at all career stages,” the society said in its announcement. “She has published over 150 articles, including pioneering studies on the contributions of aromatization in the sexual differentiation and activation of avian copulatory behavior. In addition to her research, she provided a clear synthesis of the field of behavioral neuroendocrinology in her 2005 book, ‘Hormones and Animal Social Behavior.’ ”
Adkins-Regan’s research focused on the neuroendocrine basis of social behavior. Her lab considered questions, such as:
- How and where do hormones act in the brain to regulate behavior?
- How do hormones contribute to the development of sex differences in behavior and mate choice?
- How do the long-term effects of hormone action during early development shape adaptive adult behavior?
- What is the role of hormones in mediating maternal effects on the adult behavior of offspring?
Lehrman was an early and exceptionally influential scientist in behavioral neuroendocrinology whose work involved original and creative experimental designs combined with, at the time, the latest in neuroendocrine methodology. Through his scholarship, mentoring and teaching, primarily as a faculty in, and founding member of, the Institute for Animal Behavior at Rutgers University, he influenced an entire generation of scientists in the field.
