-- The Families for Early Autism Treatment honored neuroscientist David Amaral with the first annual Rick Rollens Research Award. Amaral is a professor in the medical school's Department of Psychiatry and the Center for Neuroscience and is research director of the UC Davis Medical Investigation for Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute, a center devoted to unraveling the problems posed by disorders of the brain. Amaral's studies focus on identifying those parts of the brain that may be linked to autistic behavior.