Dr. Ursula Bellugi ’52, a professor and director of the Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, is a pioneer in the study of the biological foundation of language. She is regarded as the founder of the study of the neurobiology of American Sign Language, because her work was the first to show it is a true language, complete with grammar and syntax, and is processed by many of the same parts of the brain that process spoken language. Her work has led to the discovery that the left hemisphere of the human brain becomes specialized for languages, whether spoken or signed, a striking demonstration of neuronal plasticity.