Established 1966 Location Boston, MA Phone +1 617-432-1772 Parent organization Harvard Medical School | Chairman Michael E. Greenberg Chairperson Michael E. Greenberg Founded 1966 | |
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Address 220 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA Similar Harvard Medical School, Boston University, New Research Building, Dana‑Far Cancer Institute, Brigham & Women's Hospital | ||
The Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, MA. It is consistently ranked as one of the top programs in Neurobiology and behavior in the world. The Department is part of the Basic Research Program at Harvard Medical School, with research pertaining to development of the nervous system, sensory neuroscience, neurophysiology, and behavior. The Department was founded by Stephen W. Kuffler in 1966, the first department dedicated to Neurobiology in the world. The mission of the Department is “ to understand the workings of the brain through basic research and to use that knowledge to work toward preventive and therapeutic methods that alleviate neurological diseases”.
Contents
History
Prior to moving to Boston, while at Johns Hopkins University, Kuffler recruited Torsten N. Wiesel, David Hubel, David Potter, and Edwin Furshpan to work on various aspects of nerve physiology. As Hubel later recounted, Wiesel, Hubel, and Kuffler "...represented central nervous system physiology; Furshpan and Potter (and of course Steve) represented synaptic physiology; and Ed Kravitz, representing neurochemistry, arrived soon after our move to Harvard."
The group moved to Harvard Medical School in 1959 as a sub-department within the Department of Pharmacology, headed by Otto Krayer. In 1966, Kuffler came up with the term neurobiology to unite these sub-disciplines into the first-ever Department of Neurobiology, an independent department at Harvard Medical School. Hubel later said, “I can’t be absolutely certain how the term neurobiology originated, but I believe Steve Kuffler invented it when we had to think up a title for our department when it was founded on 1965. That he almost single-handedly invented the field of neurobiology, I think few would dispute.”
Early on, the founders of the Department worked to recruit students and researchers to work in their laboratories, and paid special attention to recruiting with a social conscience. According to David Potter, "There’s another fact of the department that interests me personally, [that] has to do with our involvement in acceptance of medical students who were minorities… it was something new, and it was a political struggle and that made it very interesting. I spent a lot of time there, time that I should have been spending in the lab doing science and research, on admissions and recruiting, and I got kind of devoted to that. I don’t regret that at all, it was an education for me."
Wiesel chaired the department from 1973, and was succeeded by David Potter in 1982, Gerald Fishbach in 1990, and Carla Shatz in 2000 (the first female to chair such a department). In 2008, Michael E. Greenberg assumed the position of Department chair, a position he currently holds. Under his leadership, he has integrated Harvard Neurobiology with neuroscience in the Harvard-affiliated hospitals, such as Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. To further facilitate the interaction and collaboration of neuroscientists at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA and Harvard Medical School, the Harvard Brain Initiative, co-chaired by Michael Greenberg and Joshua Sanes, funds collaborations and research initiatives specifically between members of the Department faculty and other neuroscientists at Harvard University.
In October 2016, current and past faculty, students, and researchers will gather in Boston to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Department.
Notable Contributions to Neurobiology
Current Research and Academic Staff
The Department currently has 38 faculty members and close to 300 graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and other research staff.
The Department’s current research generally encompasses the following areas:
The Department's faculty also participates in the Program in Neuroscience PhD Program offered by Harvard University.
Select Awards and Honors for Past and Current Faculty Members
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine:
Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research:
NIH Director's Pioneer Awards:
NIH Director's New Innovator Awards:
Gruber Prize in Neuroscience: