Residence Australia Fields Neuroscience Name Linda Richards | Citizenship Australian Doctoral advisor Perry Bartlett Role Neuroscientist | |
Institutions Queensland Brain Institute Alma mater University of Melbourne,
Walter and Eliza Hall | ||
Linda Richards is an Australian researcher at Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at the University of Queensland.
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Early life and education
Linda undertook her undergraduate studies at Monash University, and at the University of Melbourne, where she was awarded a Bachelor of Science with first class honours in 1990. Her PhD, researching the determination of neuronal lineage of in the developing spinal cord, was conferred in 1995 from the laboratory of Perry Bartlett, at the Walter and Eliza Hall in Melbourne.
Work
After obtaining her PhD from WEHI, Linda Richards began her postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies, in the laboratory of Professor Dennis O'Leary. In 1997 she established her own laboratory at the University of Maryland medical school. In 2005 she returned to Australia, taking up a position at the University of Queensland, where she was appointed Associate Professor in the QBI, and the School of Biomedical Sciences. She was subsequently promoted to Professor in 2010.
Professor Richardson is currently the head of the Cortical Development and Axon Guidance Laboratory at the QBI. The laboratory researches the cellular and molecular mechanisms which regulate the formation and development of the corpus callosum. The research focus of her laboratory to study the development of the cortical midline in animal models and in human tissue. In particular, she is involved in researching a phenomenon where the corpus collosum is absent (agenesis) or disformed (dysgenesis) in the developing brain. This condition affects 1 in 4000 people, and is associated with 50 different human congenital disorders.
Linda Richards also acts as scientific advisor for the Australian disorders of the Corpus Collosum.
Awards and honours
Brain Bee Challenge
In 2006, Professor Richards founded the Australian-New Zealand Brain Bee Challenge. This a competition for secondary students interested in neuroscience. The goal of this program to educate students and teachers about neuroscience, the latest scientific findings, the impact of research on the community, and to encourage students from rural Australia and New Zealand to become involved in neuroscience.