The Foundation focuses on underwriting fundamental research about the functioning of the human brain, with a particular emphasis on understanding the basis of behavior. The Foundation primarily supports young scientists as they establish their careers though innovative research and pilot studies. Fellowships and grant programs encourage creative and interdisciplinary research at the highest level.
The Leon Levy Fund for Young Investigators in Neuroscience created three positions for emerging researchers who will explore new avenues of inquiry in brain science, gaining knowledge about brain function and development and about what goes wrong in diseased or injured brains. Grants support the work of neuroscientists, neuro-oncologists and neurosurgeons pursuing highly innovative investigations.
The Leon Levy Development Program for Young Researchers in Neuroscience supports exceptional physicianscientists starting their research careers in psychiatric neuroscience. Awards finance the investigations of post-graduate fellows and post-residency graduates in the College’s MD-PhD program.
With a three-year grant, the Foundation is underwriting collaborative research into two little-known neurological disorders: chemotherapy-related cognitive dysfunction in adult cancer patients, in hopes of discovering “neuroprotective agents” to minimize it, and “water on the brain” (normal pressure hydrocephalus), which causes disturbances in gait, balance, control of urination and memory.
The Foundation established and supports the Shelby White and Leon Levy Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, a nexus for the work of laboratories studying neural systems, neurogenetics, neural development and neurochemistry. In addition, by underwriting four Leon Levy Presidential Fellowships, it is helping Rockefeller recruit young scientists at the crossroads of physics, mathematics and neuroscience.
The Foundation supports three Leon Levy Assistant Research Professors in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. These researchers are now able to devote their full energies to increasing the body of scientific knowledge of mental illness in the young.