Working in the forefront of cognitive neuroscience, Patricia Reuter-Lorenz has enhanced understanding of basic mental processes. Renowned for her investigations of cognition and aging, she has opened new vistas on mental and neurological changes as people grow older.

She chairs the Department of Psychology, is a faculty associate at the Institute for Social Research Survey Research Center, and co-directs the International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course.

Reuter-Lorenz was among the first to use functional brain imaging to investigate associations between brain alterations and declines in cognitive processes related to aging. She has advanced understanding of the function of specific brain regions, and has shown that functions served by regions in one half of the brain may be subsumed partially by regions in the other half as people age, opening up possibilities to enhance the aging mind.

Reuter-Lorenz has published 96 articles, 19 book chapters, has given more than 165 invited lectures and conference presentations, and has co-edited two books. She received U-M's Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program Outstanding Mentor Award and the American Psychological Association Division 20 Mentor Award.

She is a member of the First Generation University Student Support Group at the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies. Nationally, she is a co-founder and governing board member of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society and serves on the Association for Advancement of Aging Research National Scientific Advisory Council and the Psychonomic Society governing board.

She is co-editor-in-chief of Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition and serves on numerous editorial boards. A fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the Society of Experimental Psychologists, she received the Justine and Yves Sergent Award for International Accomplishments in Cognitive Neuroscience, Michigan's LSA Excellence in Research Award, the Rackham Career Development Award, and Faculty Recognition Award.

Distinguished Faculty Achievement Awards honor senior faculty who consistently have demonstrated outstanding achievements in the areas of scholarly research or creative endeavors, teaching and mentoring of students and junior faculty, service, and a variety of other activities.