In Memory Of… Endel Tulving

Honoring scientists who have made important and lasting contributions to the sciences of mind, brain, and behavior.

Endel Tulving, PhD (1927-2023)
Tanenbaum Chair, Cognitive Neuroscience
Rotman Research Institute of Baycrest, Toronto

 

Endel Tulving held the Tanenbaum Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Rotman Research Institute of Baycrest Centre in Toronto, and was the Clark Way Distinguished Visiting Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis. Tulving received his PhD in experimental psychology from Harvard University in 1957, and was a faculty member at the University of Toronto for most of the subsequent 35 years. He also served on the faculty at Yale University from 1970-1975.

For nearly half a century, Tulving’s seminal ideas and findings had a major impact on psychological and neurobiological studies of human memory, including his research on the importance of retrieval processes during the 1960s, proposal of the encoding specificity principle and the distinction between episodic and semantic memory during the 1970s, and observations concerning the brain substrates of memory systems in the 1980s and 1990s. During the past decade, Tulving played a leading role in the rapidly evolving field of brain imaging of memory processes.

Tulving’s work had been recognized by many awards and honors, including the Warren Medal from the Society of Experimental Psychologists (1982), Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association (1983), Killam Prize in Health Sciences (1994), Gairdner International Award (2005), and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1986) and National Academy of Sciences (1988).

 

Individuals Honoring Endel Tulving: 

Albert S. Bregman, McGill University
Randy Buckner, Harvard University
Roberto Cabeza, Duke University
Ruth Donnelly, Hospital for Sick Children
Emrah Duezel, University College, London
Eric Eich, University of British Columbia
Elizabeth Glisky, University of Arizona
Reza Habib, Southern Illinois University
Stephan Hamann, Emory University
Kathleen McDermott, Washington University
Janet Metcalfe, Columbia University
Mortimer Mishkin, National Institutes of Health
 Morris Moscovitch, University of Toronto
Lars-Goran Nilsson, Stockholm University
Lars Nyberg, UMEA University, Sweden
Norman Park, York University
James Pomerantz, Rice University
Henry Roediger, Washington University
* Daniel Schacter, Harvard University
Barbara Schwartz, Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Robert Sternberg, Tufts University

 * The FABBS Foundation would like to thank Dr. Daniel Schacter for nominating Dr. Tulving for this honor and for leading the effort to spread the word about his nomination.