UCI Neuroscientist to Head Society

Edward G. Jones, a neuroscientist at UC Irvine, has been elected president of the Society of Neuroscience, a worldwide organization of more than 26,000 scientists and physicians.

Jones, a professor of anatomy and neurobiology, will serve as president-elect for a year before assuming the top post in 1998.

University officials said the society, founded in 1970, is the world’s largest and most prestigious dedicated to understanding the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system.

Jones said his top priorities as president will be converting the Journal of Neuroscience, considered the field’s top journal, into an online publication, and maintaining the society’s aggressive push for research funding from Congress.