The Martinos Center’s Alexandra Touroutoglou has been named Woman of the Year in the “Expatriate” category by the Greek magazine Beauté. She accepted the award during a ceremony at the Athens Concert Hall, which was broadcast on March 8th in recognition of International Women’s Day.
The award recognizes Touroutoglou’s entire body of work, and especially shines a light on her “superaging” paper published last year. In this study, reported in the Journal of Neuroscience, she and colleagues identified a remarkable group of elderly patients with the memory performance—and accompanying brain structures—of subjects decades younger. Their findings have wide-ranging and important implications.
“As a Greek woman, it’s a great honor to be recognized by my home country,” she said. “I’m particularly proud to represent the achievements of women in science. I’m also extremely gratified that this award draws attention to our work in superaging, which points to potential behavioral and biological biomarkers of successful aging as well as new strategies to promote cognitive function in the elderly.”