University of Colorado scientist Steven Maier, who discovered a brain mechanism that not only produces resilience to trauma but aids in coping with future adversity, has won the 2016 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Psychology.

The award is among the most prestigious in the field of psychology and comes with a $100,000 prize.

Maier, distinguished professor of psychology and neuroscience and Center for Neuroscience director at CU, has been working in that this field of research for more than 40 years and began his career at the university in 1973.

Maier's award-winning work involves what makes a person resistant or, vulnerable, to stress when bad things happen. He showed if test subjects had some behavioral control over some element of the adverse event, they were less negatively impacted and became "immunized" against some harmful effects of future bad events -- even if those events were uncontrollable.

Through laboratory research studies, he uncovered in animal subjects the neural mechanism that provides such resilience in the face of trauma.

"We're developing an understanding of what produces resilience in the face of bad events that occur so we can tell you what you can do to promote this resistance and resilience," Maier said in a news release.

The University of Louisville presents the Grawemeyer Award annually for outstanding works in music composition, ideas improving world order, education and psychology, and and gives a religion prize jointly with Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. The five 2016 winners will present free lectures about their ideas when they visit Louisville in April to accept their $100,000 prizes.