Dr. Eric Kandel is a world-renowned neuroscientist whose pioneering research has transformed our understanding of the biological basis of memory and learning. Born in Vienna, Austria in 1929, he fled Nazi persecution with his family in 1939, eventually settling in New York where he would build his extraordinary scientific career. After earning his undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1952 and his medical degree from NYU School of Medicine in 1956, he trained in neurobiology at the National Institutes of Health and in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. In 1974, he joined Columbia University as Professor of Physiology and Psychiatry and became the founding director of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, establishing one of the most influential neuroscience research programs in the world.
Dr. Kandel's groundbreaking research on the marine snail Aplysia revealed the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying memory formation, demonstrating how learning alters the strength of synaptic connections between neurons. His seminal work established that short-term memory involves changes in synaptic strength through protein phosphorylation, while long-term memory requires gene expression and the growth of new synaptic connections. This fundamental insight, showing that memories are stored through physical changes in the brain's neural circuitry, provided the first comprehensive explanation of memory at the cellular level. His discoveries, which apply universally across species from invertebrates to humans, earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2000 and revolutionized the scientific understanding of learning and memory processes.
Beyond his experimental work, Dr. Kandel has profoundly shaped the field through his influential textbook Principles of Neural Science, now in its seventh edition and considered the definitive reference in neuroscience education worldwide. He has received numerous prestigious honors including the National Medal of Science, the Wolf Prize in Medicine, and twenty-two honorary degrees from institutions around the globe. As University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University and former Director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Science, he continues to influence neuroscience through his writings and lectures, including his acclaimed book In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind. His legacy endures through generations of neuroscientists he has trained and inspired, as well as through ongoing research that continues to build upon his foundational insights into the biological basis of mind.
