EVANSTON, Ill. --- Cynthia Thompson, professor of communication sciences and disorders at Northwestern University, has been named the recipient of the Martin E. and Gertrude G. Walder Award for Research Excellence.

Thompson, a faculty member in the University's School of Communication, is a leading researcher in aphasia and recovery from stroke. 

The results of her research have been integrated into the treatment of individuals who have suffered strokes and other brain injuries, improving the quality of life for those people. Her research has shown that recovery from aphasia -- loss of ability to understand or express speech -- continues and patients can recover more language than thought possible and improve their language processing abilities.

Thompson, who also holds appointments in the Feinberg School of Medicine department of neurology and the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, uses a wide variety of methodologies, such as eye-tracking, functional MRI and behavioral measures to study language recovery as well as the neural mechanisms that support it. Findings provide information for developing more efficient and effective treatment procedures for people suffering from aphasia.

Thompson's research has been supported by 11 major federally funded grants, primarily from the National Institutes of Health. She has developed language tests, including the Quality of Communication Life Scales, and a language assessment battery for aphasia, and is the author or coauthor of 58 journal articles, 23 book chapters and 29 published abstracts.

She is a fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and a member of several professional organizations, including the Academy of Aphasia, where she serves on the board of governors, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society and the Society for Neuroscience.

Thompson joined the Northwestern faculty in 1992.

The Walder Award was established by Dr. Joseph A. Walder, who earned a master's degree in chemistry from Northwestern in 1972 and an M.D. degree in 1975. The award carries a stipend of $15,000. Dr. Walder also established a permanently endowed professorship, the Irving M. Klotz Research Professorship.

The previous recipients of the Walder Award are Timothy Breen (history), 2002; Mary Zimmerman (performance studies), 2003; Lindsay Chase-Lansdale (education and social policy), 2004; Gary Saul Morson (Slavic languages and literatures), 2005; and Prem Kumar (electrical engineering and computer science), 2006.

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