Kim Peek

Education Award (2004)

Winner: National Scholarship Award for Workplace Innovation and Design  
Received by: Therese Stein, Governmental Affairs and Workforce Development Department, National Scholarship Award for Workplace Innovation and Design

53-year-old, Kim Peek, is called a "mega-savant" because he is a genius in about 15 different subjects, from history and literature and geography to numbers, sports, music and dates.  But he also is severely limited in other ways, like not being able to find the silverware drawer at home or dressing himself.

NASA researchers had autistic savant Kim Peek undergo a series of tests including computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, the results of which will be melded to create a three-dimensional look at his brain structure.  The researchers want to compare a series of MRI images taken in 1988 by Dr. Dan Christensen, Peek's neuropsychiatrist at the University of Utah, to see what has since changed within his brain. 

"Not only are Peek's brain and his abilities unique," noted Richard D. Boyle, director of the California center performing the scans, "but he seems to be getting smarter in his specialty areas as he ages."

"The goal is to measure what happens in Kim's brain when he expresses things and when he thinks about them," said his father, Fran.