This action is to recommend Dr. Janis Weeks for the Presidential Young Investigator Award. Her specialty is the electrophysiology of invertebrate systems. She has already contributed a great deal to the understanding of the leech nervous system and how it produces the swim rhythm. Her work on the characterization of moth eclosion motor patterns established her as one of the premier neurobiologists in the business of explaining pattern generation in neural terms. She has also made major contributions regarding how specific hormones control motor programs in invertebrates. This body of work has lead her into the area of hormones and how they effect the developing nervous system and behavior. Since most of our detailed information about the human nervous system comes from earlier studies first done on invertebrate preparations it is wise to support the best and the brightest of these scientific types. Dr. Weeks is of that category.
