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2012 SESSION


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 481
Commending Dr. Giorgio A. Ascoli.

 

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, March 2, 2012
Agreed to by the Senate, March 7, 2012

 

WHEREAS, Dr. Giorgio A. Ascoli, University Professor of Molecular Neuroscience at George Mason University, was honored by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia with a 2012 Outstanding Faculty Award; and

WHEREAS, only the best of the Commonwealth’s faculty at public and private colleges and universities receive the prestigious Outstanding Faculty Award, which recognizes superior accomplishments in teaching, research, and public service; and

WHEREAS, a native of Italy, Dr. Ascoli trained in Chemistry at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and earned a doctorate studying proteins involved in learning and neurodegeneration; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Ascoli was awarded the European Phillips Young Investigator Award in 1989 for the synthesis of a new organic molecule and moved to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1994 before joining the faculty of George Mason University; and

WHEREAS, a pioneer in the field of neuroinformatics and computational neuroanatomy, Dr. Ascoli was the founding director of the Center for Neural Informatics, Neural Structures, and Neural Plasticity at the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study of George Mason University; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Ascoli serves as the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Neuroinformatics and created and curates NeuroMorpho.Org, the largest collection of three-dimensional digital reconstructions of neurons, which provides a wealth of information for scientists from around the world; and

WHEREAS, a professor at the undergraduate and graduate level, Dr. Ascoli was one of the lead faculty in designing and implementing the doctoral neuroscience program at George Mason University; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Ascoli designs the curriculum for most of his classes, encouraging an intellectually nourishing environment where his students learn the importance of high-level critical thinking; and

WHEREAS, highly respected in his field, Dr. Ascoli serves on numerous review panels and editorial boards and has received $10 million in grants to further his research; and

WHEREAS, a passionate and knowledgeable scientist, Dr. Ascoli has greatly added to the body of knowledge in his field while broadening the knowledge and understanding of his students and inspiring future scientists; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly commend Dr. Giorgio A. Ascoli on his 2012 State Council of Higher Education for Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to Dr. Giorgio A. Ascoli as an expression of the General Assembly’s appreciation of his dedication to scientific discovery and to the higher education of students in the Commonwealth.