Roberta Brinton is among UArizona Alumni of the Year
Roberta Diaz Brinton, PhD, Regents Professor and director of the Center for Innovation in Brain Science, was among the Alumni of the Year for 2024 as selected by the University of Arizona Alumni Foundation.
Roberta Diaz Brinton rides her bicycle on the UArizona Mall in the early 1980s. She earned all of her undergraduate and graduate degrees at UArizona.
Brinton is an alumna of the UArizona College of Science, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and biology in 1979, a master’s degree in neuropsychology in 1981 and a doctorate in psychobiology and neuropharmacology in 1984. She went on to conduct her postdoctoral research at The Rockefeller University, the Utrecht University Institute for Brain Research in the Netherlands and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Following a highly successful, multidecade career at the University of Southern California, Brinton returned to UArizona in 2016 to establish the Center for Innovation in Brain Science.
“Being the College of Science Alumna of the Year is an honor and privilege that I shall always cherish,” Brinton said. “The College of Science was the portal through which both my life and career path were simultaneously transformed.
“The depth and breadth of the science I was able to learn was paralleled by the support and encouragement of faculty. The cultural DNA of transformation that started in the College of Science has become the foundation for the Center for Innovation in Brain Science, enabling us to address the challenge of finding cures for neurodegenerative diseases. The University of Arizona provides the perfect ecosystem for innovation, bold risk-taking and wonder.”
“Roberta Brinton epitomizes what it means to be a Wildcat,” said Michael D. Dake, MD, senior vice president for the University of Arizona Health Sciences. “Her devotion to this university goes beyond earning her degrees here. She is a research leader, a valued mentor and has created a center that advances our knowledge of the brain and helps people around the world.”
Roberta Diaz Brinton, PhD
Brinton’s research focuses on Alzheimer’s and the aging brain. She is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in the aging female brain and her scientific discoveries have led to the development of innovative therapeutics to prevent, delay and treat Alzheimer’s, including the first regenerative therapeutic for the degenerated brain, which is currently in an NIH-funded, Phase 2 clinical trial.
More than 7 million people in the United States are living with a neurodegenerative disease, with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease being the most common. An ever-increasing number of Americans are affected by these diseases and their impact on families and communities is compounding the effects of this global health challenge.
The Center for Innovation in Brain Science is an academic/biotech hybrid where Brinton leads basic, translational and clinical science teams and technology transfer professionals. Her mentorship spans multiple levels of scientific development, from an NIH T32 training program for predoctoral fellows to an NIH R25 training grant for Diné Tribal College students on the Navajo Nation and a junior faculty development program for the NIH Arizona Alzheimer’s Research Center.
“The beauty of an integrated learning environment is the opportunity for experience-dependent mentorship at every level. This mentorship model is at the heart of the Center for Innovation in Brain Science,” Brinton said.
Brinton was one of 15 alumni to receive a 2024 Alumni of the Year Award during a ceremony on Feb. 22. Honorees were nominated by their colleges and awardees were chosen by the Alumni Advisory Council. The Alumni of the Year Award was inaugurated in 1943.
Another UArizona Health Sciences faculty member who was among the Alumni of the Year honorees was Chris Goettl, MD, head of arterial anatomy simulation at the College of Medicine – Phoenix, and an alumnus of the college.