Eric Kandel | |
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Kandel at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, 2013
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Born | Eric Richard Kandel November 7, 1929 Vienna, Austria |
Fields | Psychiatry, psychoanalysis and neuroscience |
Institutions | Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons |
Alma mater |
New York University Medical School Harvard University |
Notable students |
Richard Scheller Thomas Jessell |
Known for | Physiology of memory |
Notable awards | Dickson Prize (1983) Lasker Award (1983) National Medal of Science (1988) Harvey Prize (1993) Wolf Prize in Medicine (1999) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2000) |
Spouse | Denise Bystryn (m. 1956) |
Children | 2 |
Eric Richard Kandel (German: [ˈkandəl]; born November 7, 1929) is an Austrian-Americanneuropsychiatrist. He was a recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on the physiological basis of memory storage in neurons. He shared the prize with Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard.
Kandel, who had studied psychoanalysis, wanted to understand how memory works. Following the advice of his mentor Harry Grundfest, Kandel pursued a reductionist approach to studying the nervous system, searching for subject animals with large and basic neural structures. Kandel made his most famous breakthrough working with the sea slug Aplysia californica, which has large nerve cells amenable to experimental manipulation and is a member of the simplest group of animals known to be capable of learning.
Kandel is a University Professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. He is a Senior Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He was also the founding director of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, which is now the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University. He currently serves on the Scientific Council of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. Kandel's popularized account chronicling his life and research, In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind, was awarded the 2006 Los Angeles Times Book Award for Science and Technology.