Born in Managua, Nicaragua, Nelly Amador came with her family to California when she was six. She spoke no English when she began first grade.

“I didn’t understand anything,” Amador recalls.

By second grade, she had learned English. On May 18, Amador will be honored in a ceremony as UCLA’s Outstanding Graduate Student. Two weeks later, she will earn her Ph.D. in neuroscience.

Amador is the first person in UCLA history to receive both UCLA’s Outstanding Graduate Student Award and the Outstanding Senior, having won the latter in 1996.

As far back as she can remember, she has always wanted to be a doctor. In June, she will start her third year at UCLA’s medical school.

She became interested in research her sophomore year at UCLA, when she enrolled in a seminar on vision taught by research neurobiologist Madeleine Schlag-Rey.

“I was so eager to work in her lab, I told her I’ll do anything,” Amador said. She worked with Schlag-Rey and neurobiology professor John Schlag for the remainder of her undergraduate years, and has continued her graduate research in the lab.

What makes Amador a successful researcher?

“She is extremely enthusiastic and persistent, has tremendous energy, and the will to surmount all obstacles,” Schlag-Rey said. “She sets her objectives clearly, and works diligently to achieve them. I expect Nelly to be quite successful.”

Amador conducts research on eye movements that are often impaired in patients with such diseases as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia. She has identified a region of the
brain that performs a critical role in the initiation of voluntary eye movements. This research is part of a pioneering effort to study neuronal mechanisms underlying the performance of cognitive tasks by humans. She has published her research in Nature and other scientific journals, and presented her research at more than 25 scientific conferences.

Amador turned down full scholarships to attend the Mayo Clinic, UC San Diego and other universities to pursue her Ph.D. and M.D. degrees at UCLA.

“I have enjoyed every moment I have been at UCLA, and would not trade a free education at any other university for the experiences I am getting at UCLA,” she said. “I can’t say enough about UCLA: The students are curious and eager to learn; the professors are willing to listen and are generous with their time; I was in a class with Louis Ignarro the week he won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. I am making my dreams come true here.”

Amador’s sister and best friend, Gloria, was also an outstanding student at UCLA, and won numerous honors, including her selection as a Bunche Scholar by UCLA’s Alumni Association, and to USA Today’s College Academic First Team in 1997.

Nelly Amador has volunteered for numerous community service projects, including serving on and chairing the Dr. Ralph J. Bunche Scholarship Award committee; answering questions from high school students on the “Ask a Scientist” Web site (www.holidaylectures.org/askascientist/), which is sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; serving as a mentor to a pre-med undergraduate student; serving as an election monitor in her home town of Glendale; and volunteering for many other programs and committees.

She has won numerous awards, including being selected among 80 students nationally to receive a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellowship in Biological Sciences, two Chancellor’s Service Awards, and several scholarships and fellowships.

Amador offers younger students this advice: “Hard work pays off. Pursue your dreams. I came to a new country, learned a new language and am achieving my dreams.”

What are her plans after completing her last two years of medical school?

“My goal is to become a physician, researcher and professor,” she said. “My dream job, which would be a wonderful thrill, is to be a clinical professor of neurology at UCLA.”