On August 26, 2024, we celebrated the opening of UC Berkeley’s new Neuroscience Department with a ribbon cutting and party on Barker Lawn at the annual welcome picnic for our new Neuroscience PhD students. The Neuroscience Department is the first new department in the Division of Biological Sciences in more than three decades. It spans the entire range of neuroscience from molecules to behavior and cognition, including computational neuroscience and neurotechnology. The department already has over 30 faculty members and more than 200 postdoctoral researchers, PhD students, and laboratory staff.
Dan Feldman, inaugural chair of the Neuroscience Department, spoke at the event, along with Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute (HWNI) co-founder Corey Goodman, and HWNI director Ehud Isacoff. In their remarks, they explained the importance of having an academic department at UC Berkeley that reflects the interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience, and the efforts over the years that led to this milestone.
Many members of the neuroscience community at Berkeley and their families attended the celebration, including faculty, returning and new students, postdocs, and staff. Feldman cut a ribbon to officially open the department’s newly renovated offices and student gathering space on the first floor of Barker Hall, which the attendees were invited to tour.
The opening celebration follows the Neuroscience Department’s official launch on July 1, 2024. This fall semester, the department will begin accepting undergraduates into its new major in neuroscience. The department has also adopted the Neuroscience PhD Program, which is now run jointly by the department and HWNI. The new Neuroscience Department will complement the continued work of HWNI, which remains as a cross-departmental institute for neuroscience research at UC Berkeley.
To learn more about the new department, read this announcement and message from Dan Feldman: Department of Neuroscience to launch at UC Berkeley (Jan 2024)
