December 19, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Edward Taub, Ph.D., professor of psychology at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) and director of the Taub Training Clinic, has received the 2004 American Psychological Association (APA) Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology. The award is one of the highest distinctions presented by the APA, the leading professional society in the field of psychology.

The APA, which will present the award to Taub at their annual convention next summer in Hawaii, calls the award ‘an outstanding accolade of scientific achievement.’

Taub received his doctoral degree from New York University in 1970 and joined the faculty at UAB in 1986. He is a behavioral neuroscientist who developed a new family of techniques called Constraint-Induced Movement therapy, shown to be effective in improving the rehabilitation of movement after stroke and other neurological injuries in humans. It is currently the subject of the first multi-center national clinical trial for stroke rehabilitation funded by NIH.

Taub has also shown that massive cortical reorganization of the nervous system takes place in the absence of nerve impulses, such as after the severing of nerves by amputation, for example. This research indicates that the human nervous system has considerable ability to reorganize itself in the event of severe neurological injury.

“Dr. Taub has published more than 140 articles in his distinguished career,” says Carl McFarland, Ph.D., chair of the department of psychology at UAB. “His work has been heavily cited in scientific journals, and he has received a good deal of attention in the popular media, including national news magazines and television networks.”

Taub has previously been honored as the recipient of the William James Award of the American Psychological Society in 1997; the 1997 Ireland Award for Distinguished Scholarship from UAB; and the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback.