Nobel Laureate Kandel Opens ‘Demystifying Medicine’ Series, Jan. 5

Dr. Eric Kandel

The “Demystifying Medicine” course for 2016 begins on Tuesday, Jan. 5 with a lecture by Dr. Eric Kandel, co-recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his research on the physiological basis of memory storage in neurons. The lecture is from 4 to 6 p.m. in Masur Auditorium, Bldg. 10.

Kandel’s talk is titled “The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind and Brain from Vienna 1900 to the Present,” based on his most recent book of the same name. He is a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, as well as a senior investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Kandel trained at NIH in neurobiology in the late 1950s.

Lauded for his scientific contributions, Kandel is also a talented science communicator and popularizer. He chronicled his life and research in the book In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind, which won the 2006 Los Angeles Times Book Award for Science and Technology. His latest book explores how the interaction of artists, writers, physicians and scientists in the salons of turn-of-the-century Vienna gave birth to a new way of thinking about the mind.

Demystifying Medicine, now in its 12th year at NIH, is directed primarily toward Ph.D. students, trainees, clinicians and program managers. Sponsored jointly by the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences and NIH, the course is designed to help bridge the gap between advances in biology and their application to major human diseases. Each session includes clinical and basic science components presented by NIH staff and invitees.  

Course materials are posted at https://demystifyingmedicine.od.nih.gov. Registrants who attend at least 10 sessions and pass a computerized final exam will receive a certificate. All students, fellows and staff are welcome to attend any lecture without participating in the course. For more information, contact course director Dr. Win Arias (arias@mail.nih.gov).