Josephine Mills Research Awards
The Josephine Mills Research Awards recognize outstanding researchers for their contribution to research in the areas of Down syndrome and in brain imaging using magnetoencephalography (MEG).

The recipients of the 2008 Josephine Mills Research Awards are:

  • Excellence in MEG Research in Developmental Neuroscience. Dr. Margot Taylor, University of Toronto
  • Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Janet Carr
  • Exceptional Contribution to Research in Down Syndrome. Dr. Connie Kasari, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)


Excellence in MEG Research in Developmental Neuroscience

Margot Taylor, Ph.D. is the Director of Functional Neuroimaging, Diagnostic Imaging and Senior Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children and Professor of Paediatrics, Medical Imaging and Psychology at the University of Toronto. Her research investigates the neural bases of cognitive development. Areas of study include development of early stages of visual processing and recognition, faces (emotional expressions), frontal lobe functions using various protocols adapted for children, and visual attention. Current studies use functional MRI and MEG, and include normative series and clinical populations – children with autism, preterm children, and children with epilepsy.

Lifetime Achievement

Janet Carr, Ph.D. was the Regional Tutor in the Psychology of Learning Disability at St George’s Hospital in London, until her retirement in 1992. Her principal research interest has concerned a longitudinal study of a cohort of children with Down syndrome and their families, and a matched comparison group of non-disabled babies and their families. The study has followed the intellectual, language and academic development of the children, their daily living skills, and social and employment experiences, and has also looked at the impact of the child in each group of families. The study was initiated when the children were just six weeks old and has continued, with the subjects now being in their forties.

Exceptional Contribution to Research in Down Syndrome

Connie Kasari, Ph.D. is Professor in the Division of Psychological Studies in Education in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences. Her research has focused on the social and emotional development of children with developmental disabilities, particularly children with Down syndrome and children with autism. Her current research centers on emotion regulation and caregiver child interaction in children with Down syndrome, and intervention studies in autism, particularly early social communication skills with young children, and school based peer interventions with older children. Her current funded intervention studies include peer related school interventions (NIMH), caregiver mediated intervention for toddlers with autism (NIMH), joint attention intervention for non-verbal children with autism (OAR) and promoting development in high-risk infants (Autism Speaks)