Building new bridges across disciplines
The Boston University Graduate Program for Neuroscience (GPN)
The Graduate Program for Neuroscience is directed by Professor Shelley J. Russek of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics on the Medical Campus and Associate Director Professor Frank Guenther of the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems on the Charles River Campus. The overarching mission of this training program is to provide an innovative and flexible environment for graduate study that merges a foundation in basic neuroscience with a clinical perspective. We believe that this merger will empower the next generation of neuroscientists with a greater ability to move from exciting discoveries that are at the cutting edge of science to the bedside where they can improve the human condition. In addition to “core” coursework, students can choose to pursue their elective study in multiple areas of neuroscience, to focus in a particular area that complements their research interests, or to take an exceptional curriculum that will best prepare them for the exciting and challenging field of computational neuroscience.
The Assistant Director of the program is Ms. Sandi Grasso (ph. 617-358-1123) who serves both the CRC and MED campuses. Specialized administrative support for the computational neuroscience curriculum comes from Ms. Kate Nelson in the CompNet Center at the CRC and Sara Johnson (ph. 617-638-4300) in the Department of Pharmacology at MED helps students with immediate resolution of issues that may arise during their thesis work in MED laboratories. Working closely together, these dedicated individuals make sure that students have a seamless connection to the broad student and faculty neuroscience community here at Boston University. The main program office is located on the sixth floor of 72 East Concord Street, Room 611 (ph: 617-638-4303) of the MED campus next to the office of the Program Director Dr. Shelley Russek. A satellite office is located at the Charles River Campus at 24 Cummington Street.
Academic advising for neuroscience students is arranged through the Program Office. To set up an appointment, please email Ms. Sandi Grasso at neurosci@bu.edu.
Program Oversight
Program development, student recruitment, current student issues regarding mentorship and curriculum, as well as review of training faculty, is addressed by the Graduate Education Committee (GEC) which meets twice per semester or more frequently if necessary. The GEC formulates and administers policies that can directly affect the quality of graduate training as a whole in GPN or to address issues that are of significance to particular students or faculty members.
Membership of the GEC includes the Program Director who serves as Chair and contains at all times equal numbers of faculty from the Charles River and Medical School campuses, as well as the Chair of the Graduate Student Neuroscience Organization (GNSO). All faculty members have voting privileges. In addition to GPN Director Shelley Russek (Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, BUMC) and Associate Director Frank Guenther (Cognitive Neural Systems, Health and Rehabilitative Sciences, CRC), current faculty members of the committee are: Carmela Abraham (Biochemistry, BUMC), William Eldred (Biology, CRC), Kathleen Kantak (Psychology, CRC), Nancy Kopell (Mathematics, CRC), Marlene Oscar-Berman (Anatomy and Neurobiology, Psychiatry, BUMC), Douglas Rosene (Anatomy and Neurobiology, BUMC), and Barbara Shinn-Cunningham (Cognitive Neural Systems/Biomedical Engineering, CRC).
In addition to the GEC, there are curriculum committees that help to oversee training within a particular pathway of emphasis, including choice of pre-requisite and elective coursework, and the development of new offerings as described under “Curriculum”.
Internal and External Advisory Boards
GPN has two faculty advisory committees that help to invigorate the program with new ideas and to provide a bridge between the students, the training faculty, and the University at large, as well as to the global Neuroscience Community.
The Executive Committee of the BU Center for Neuroscience serves as the Internal Advisory Board with the charge of helping GPN maintain equality for all BU neuroscience students regardless of research interests and campus of research mentor, enriching their experience via faculty and student community activities, helping to promote interdisciplinary interactions between students and faculty, and any other recommendations or actions from the distinguished faculty of the committee that will enhance the educational, research, and social community of the neuroscience graduate students at BU. Current members of the BU Center for Neuroscience Executive Committee are: Domenic Ciraulo, M.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry, BUMC; Howard Eichenbaum, Ph.D., Professor and Director BU Center for Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, CRC; David H. Farb, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology, BUMC; Nancy Kopell, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Mathematics, CRC; Mark Moss, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, BUMC; Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, Ph.D., Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems, CRC. Both Drs. Kopell and Shinn-Cunningham are also on the GPN Steering Committee.
The current External Advisory Board consists of the following members: Representing Training in Cognitive Neuroscience- Stephen Kossyln, Ph.D., Dean of Social Science, John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James, Harvard University; Representing Training in Computational Neuroscience- Emery Brown, M.D./Ph.D., Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Health Sciences and Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences MIT-Harvard Division of Health Sciences and Technology; Training in Molecular Neuroscience- Jay Baraban, M.D./Ph.D., The Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University; Training in Clinical Neuroscience- Amy Brooks-Kayal, M.D., Chief of Pediatric Neurology, Ponzio Family Endowed Chair in Pediatric Neurology, The Childrens Hospital, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine (see Appendix for Biosketches and confirmation of participation). All of the current members have been involved in successful neuroscience training activities across the country and as such will provide an additional perspective outside of the University regarding the national progress towards valuable interdisciplinary training in neuroscience.