The Interdepartmental Program in Neuroscience (the Program) is a broad, multidisciplinary structure that spans resources across departments and centers throughout the University. The Program has undergone several evolutionary changes and most notably was structurally reorganized in 1997. Its new form is expanded and modernized to include additional departments and centers and has established a diverse set of governing and operating committees to insure long-term structure and flexibility required of a dynamic scientific and educational enterprise. The Program now encompasses the full spectrum of neurosciences, providing training opportunities in molecular, cellular, behavioral as well as systems. Particularly important to the vitality and future success of the Program is the large infusion of resources to recruit 15 - 18 new faculty in the neurosciences. These new faculty will further strengthen our goal to provide training opportunities across disciplines ranging from molecular to systems and behavioral neurosciences. A reorganizing principle was the development of a training environment where interdisciplinary approaches to problems could be pursued, thus allowing students to study a problem at multiple levels. Some structure for the approach was embodied in the upper level research themes; tracks which represent not boundaries to train within but represent the diverse levels of problem solving available to students. The program proposed in this application will be used exclusively for broad and basic support of students in their first two years of graduate study. Following commitment to a dissertation laboratory, students will be supported by either an investigator's individual grant or a specialized training grant. The continuity of training objectives established by the Program occurs throughout the student's tenure irrespective of the mechanism of his or her support and leads to a Ph.D. in Neuroscience.
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