User:GerryShaw/sandbox

Neuroscientist William G. "Bill" Luttge, was the founding executive director of the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute (MBI) of the University of Florida and an emeritus professor of the Department of Neuroscience at the University. His major achievements were in administration, in particular directly resulting in the building of the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute in Gainesville Florida. This cutting edge research institute in turn led to many collaborations in brain research and led to the recruitment of many talented researchers, notably those in the new Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease (CTRND). The MBI has more than 300 affiliated faculty working to end the ravages of brain diseases and age-related memory loss.

Career

Luttge joined UF in 1971 as an assistant professor of neuroscience after earning his Ph.D. in biological sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He was promoted to associate professor in 1976 and full professor in 1983. The neuroscience department at the College of Medicine was one of the first of its kind in the country, and Luttge became its chairman in 1980, while also researching the molecular and behavioral actions of steroids in the brain. Luttge served as chairman of the department until 2000 and was also senior associate dean for research and basic science for the College of Medicine and chairman of the scientific advisory committee for the UF General Clinical Research Center for two years. He received the College of Medicine’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 and was named an Honorary Alumnus. In 2004, after 33 years of service to UF, Luttge retired as professor emeritus of neuroscience and pursued his passion for the outdoors. Once an accomplished runner who could finish a marathon in under two-and-a-half hours, he began hiking the Continental Divide Trail, the Florida Trail, the Tuscarora Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail. He died of bone cancer on 24th March 24 2012.