3.2.09

Eric Kandel - Nobel Prize Winner

Classes have started and my brain is already back into "experiencing Harvard and Boston mode".  Tonight I attended the viewing of "In Search of Memory" an autobiographical documentary of the life and work of Eric Kandel.  

Eric Kandel is a prominent New York psychiatrist and neurobiologist who won the Nobel Prize in 2000 for his work on the neurobiology of short and long term memory.  Born in Vienna, Kandel escaped Nazi Austria at the age of 10 to flourish academically, first in Brooklyn, then at Harvard and Columbia Universities.  

The documentary was a fascinating look into his life and work, with some absolutely incredible imagery of the neurone firing and creating new synapses with adjacent cells.  Whilst I am not a bench scientist, Kandel's passion for his research and his pursuit of new information and discoveries, even as he moves into his 70s was truly inspiring.  His book, In Search of Memory, is a more indepth narrative of the documentary I saw.

No comments: