Ilana Witten, a Princeton University assistant professor of psychology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, was named a 2013 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences for her ongoing work to identify the neural mechanisms behind working memory. Witten was among 22 early-career scientists nationwide selected by the Pew Charitable Trusts to receive $240,000 over four years that can be used freely in the exploration of pressing and complex health problems such as Alzheimer's disease, cancer and diabetes. Witten, who is the fifth Princeton recipient since the program was established in 1985, will pursue a method to control the firing pattern of certain neurons during working-memory tasks.
