Kathleen Maguire-Zeiss, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Neuroscience and director of the Integrative Neuroscience master’s program, was named among the 2024 honorees for the Georgetown President’s Awards for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers.
The awards encourage university community members to nominate faculty in recognition of “the bringing together of excellence in scholarship and teaching.” A committee of previous awardees compiles a list of finalists which is sent to the president for selection of awardees.
From the Office of the President:
Kathleen Anne Maguire-Zeiss serves as Professor and Chair in the Department of Neuroscience in the School of Medicine. Professor Maguire-Zeiss is an expert in the brain’s response to aberrant proteins and recognized for her work on alpha-synuclein, an important protein related to the pathology of Parkinson’s disease. Focusing on the response of brain immune cells and neurons to changes in their microenvironment her research uncovered novel pathways involved in age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. Her research has been consistently funded by NIH grants and private foundations, published in well-regarded journals, and presented at national and international conferences.
Professor Maguire-Zeiss is known for her commitment to the formation of early-stage scientists in the classroom, as a research mentor, and as a thesis advisor. She serves as the director of the Master in Science Program in Integrative Neuroscience, and a co-director of two NIH training grants for Ph.D. students, the Neural Injury & Plasticity Training Program and the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development.
Throughout her 17-year tenure at Georgetown, Professor Maguire-Zeiss has held many roles and is known to her colleagues and students as an exemplary scholar-teacher and generous mentor, highly esteemed by her current and former students. Professor Maguire-Zeiss is a true citizen of Georgetown, always seeking to give back through committee service and her commitment to the Spirit of Georgetown.