Eric R. Kandel, M.D.
Eric R. Kandel, M.D., is University Professor at Columbia and a Senior
Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. A graduate of Harvard College
and N.Y.U. School of Medicine, Kandel trained in Neurobiology at the NIH and in
Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He joined the faculty of the College of
Physician and Surgeons at Columbia University in 1974 as the founding Director of
the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior.
Kandel’s research has been concerned with the molecular mechanisms of
memory
storage in Aplysia and mice. Recently he has focused on the genetic
switch
for converting short-term to long-term memory and on how long term
memory
can be restricted to be synapse-specific for which he received the
Nobel
Prize in Medicine or Physiology in 2000. Kandel is a member of the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences as well as the National Science Academies
of
Germany and France. He has been recognized with the Albert Lasker
Award, the
Wolf Prize of Israel and the National Medal of Science.