This is an application to support pre- and postdoctoral training in systems and integrative neuroscience. Support is requested for five years of support for 5 pre- and 2 postdoctoral trainees in the initial and subsequent years. Training will be carried out at the Center for Neural Science, an independent academic unit in the Faculty of Arts & Science at New York University that was formed in 1987 to bring together neuroscientists from different departments. The University's commitment to the Center includes space, faculty, and budgetary support. The Center has a Ph.D. program in Neural Science, has developed an undergraduate major, has hired 7 new faculty and will add one more in the coming year. The primary training facility has 24,000 ft of renovated space, equipped to provide outstanding laboratories and offices for 11 faculty, including 8 new faculty. Newly built shared facilities are for histology and neuroanatomy, cell and molecular biology, an expanded and renovated vivarium, a computer center supporting a distributed network of super minicomputer work stations, and a central seminar/reading room. In addition to 12 current faculty with primary appointments in the Center, faculty with primary appointments in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Psychology hold joint appointments in the Center. The emphasis of the Center is systems and integrative neuroscience, and the 25 members of the Center are the faculty for the training program. Collaboration is encouraged between neuroscientists and colleagues trained in cognitive science, computer science and the quantitative study of complex systems. First-year predoctoral trainees take a core curriculum that includes lectures, laboratory rotations and a state-of-the-art teaching laboratory in which students get hands-on experience with modern experimentation in neurophysiology and biophysics, neurochemistry, experimental neuroanatomy, behavioral and cognitive neuroscience. There is considerable flexibility in the program after the first year. The faculty includes a unique group of individuals with theoretical and computational skills, who are interested in training research students to use modern experimental and theoretical tools to study the organization of functionally defined brain systems. For postdoctoral students, the environment provides excellent opportunities for collaborative interaction and exposure to a wide range of approaches to the study of the nervous system. Several postdoctoral trainees have gone through the core curriculum; others take courses when appropriate; but postdoctoral training is primarily dedicated to providing research skills and opportunities. A new Fellows' Seminar is part of the postdoctoral training program, which also includes journal Clubs and the weekly Seminar in Current Topics.
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