Zachary Knight Receives Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

July 24, 2019 | By Nina Bai
Zachary Knight, PhD

Zachary Knight, PhD

Zachary Knight, PhD, a UC San Francisco neuroscientist who studies the neural mechanisms that control hunger, thirst and thermoregulation, is among the 315 researchers selected for this year’s Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The award is the highest honor given by the U.S. Government to scientists and engineers who are in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Knight, an associate professor in the Department of Physiology, investigates how the brain senses the needs of the body and then generates specific behaviors to restore physiologic balance – sometimes in surprising ways. In just the last few years, he has upended long-held textbook theories of hunger and thirst.

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