The University of Texas at Dallas
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Dr. Denise Cortis Park (left), the first person named the T. Boone Pickens Distinguished University Chair in Clinical Brain Science with a patient.
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T. Boone Pickens Distinguished University Chair in Clinical Brain Science
Youth is the time for adventures of the body, but age for the triumphs of the mind.
-Logan Pearsall Smith
Denise Cortis Park, Ph.D., the first person to be named the T. Boone Pickens Distinguished University Chair in Clinical Brain Science at The University of Texas at Dallas Center for BrainHealth, has dedicated her career to understanding the aging mind. Utilizing many new technologies to understand how brain and memory function as adults age, her work has dispelled the assumption that aging is axiomatic with decline in brain health. "Opportunities for new discoveries in the field of brain health abound. We are finding clear evidence that the brain reorganizes and compensates for declines in some aspects of neural health. I am interested in not only understanding how the mind changes with age, but what technologies and interventions we can use to delay the process of cognitive aging and maintain brain health over the lifespan," states Dr. Park, one of the nation's leading researchers in neuroscience, memory, and aging.
Aging and cognition are inextricably linked and are a primary concern of adults as they age. The question is not "if" but "when" one will be affected, followed by "what" can be done to ameliorate the effects of aging on the brain. Dr. Park is particularly interested in whether stimulating cognitive and social experiences can enhance brain function in older adults. She has created an environment called "Synapse" at the Casa Linda Plaza in Dallas to study this issue.
Dr. Park has received many awards for her research, including a National Institute of Health MERIT Award, which is given to only 5% of researchers supported by the NIH and provides funds for 10 years of research on a critically important topic. Dr. Park is using her MERIT award to conduct the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study (DLBS). The DLBS is designed to shed light on the aging process by carefully characterizing cognitive and brain function across the lifespan in 350 adults aged 20 to 89. Relatively little is known about how brain structure and function changes decade by decade. The DLBS is one of the largest studies ever undertaken in the field of cognitive neuroscience of aging; and one of the first studies in the field to include middle-aged adults.
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T. Boone Pickens
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The establishment of the T. Boone Pickens Distinguished University Chair in Clinical Brain Science made it possible for the Center for BrainHealth to recruit Dr. Denise Cortis Park to join their team of outstanding brain science researchers. As an unexpected bonus, four of Dr. Park's research team members agreed to relocate to Dallas to continue their work with Dr. Park who was also named a Regents' Research Scholar by The University of Texas System Board of Regents.
According to T. Boone Pickens, Dallas businessman and philanthropist, "You can't help but be impressed by the research going on at the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth and their commitment to lead the way nationally in this very important field."
The T. Boone Pickens Distinguished University Chair in Clinical Brain Science endowment was established in 2007 and funds were invested in The University of Texas System Long Term Fund, which is managed by The University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO).
