Neuroscience is a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary
field devoted to understanding the functioning of the nervous system. The
Society for Neuroscience (http://www.sfn.org/) was founded in 1969 with
500 members and today has over 20,000. Neuroscientists work within a diversity
of specialties including neuroanatomy, neurobiology, neuropharmacology,
neurophysiology and medicine. They are employed in academic settings,
government, industry and medicine.
The career of "neuroscientist" requires
training beyond a bachelor's degree. Depending on course selection,
neuroscience students can prepare for master's or doctoral training in a
variety of fields including biology, psychology, anatomy, pharmacology,
toxicology, physical therapy, occupational therapy and medicine. Students
considering a medical career should take the core courses recommended in the
institution's Pre-medical Curricula.
Planning for College
The University of Scranton encourages a strong college
preparatory program in high school with a minimum of four years of English,
three years of mathematics, social science and science, and at least two years
of a foreign language with additional units taken in acceptable academic areas.
Neuroscience at The University of Scranton
The courses of the neuroscience curriculum are selected
from the biology, chemistry and psychology departments. The neuroscience
program began in 1987 and is under the direction of an interdisciplinary
committee. Dr. J. Timothy Cannon, of the psychology department, is the
director. In 1995, Dr. Cannon was honored as the CASE (Council for Advancement
and Support of Education) Professor of the Year for the state of Pennsylvania.
The majors that are most closely related to neuroscience
all have excellent records of preparing students for the pursuit of doctoral
degrees. Neuroscience students have ample research opportunities in
laboratories that can support a diversity of behavioral, biochemical,
neurophysiological and neuroanatomical investigations. This research
environment continues to improve. For example, the recently renovated
Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory in the psychology department has received a
National Science Foundation Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Grant.
Additionally, funds from a Hughes Foundation Grant have been used to equip the
Neurophysiology Lab in the biology department.
Outcomes
Sixty percent of the program's graduates have pursued
post-baccalaureate graduate training or have become involved in biomedical
research. Graduate careers include M.D., D.O., D.P.M., M.D./Ph.D.
(Neuroscience), Ph.D. (Neuroscience, Psychology, and Molecular Biology),
Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy. Graduates with bachelor's degrees
have been hired as research technicians at Columbia University, Cornell Medical
Center, New York University, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute and Cephalon
Corporation of Philadelphia.
Students in the neuroscience program are active in a
number of professional and extra-curricular activities related to neuroscience,
including the following contributions:
Several are active in the Faculty/Student Research
Program, which encourages students to become involved in ongoing faculty
research.
They have authored research presented at all but
one of the last 17 meetings of the Society for Neuroscience. This international
meeting involves over 12,000 scientific presentations and attracts more than
16,000 researchers from around the world.
In 1997, a University of Scranton student won the
Travel Award offered by the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience in
recognition of the best research paper authored by an undergraduate at this
meeting. Four University of Scranton students were co-authors on presentations
at the 1998 meeting in Los Angeles.
They have attended the past 10 annual meetings of
the Society for Neuroscience. Seven current students attended the 1998 meeting
in Los Angeles.
They consistently present their research at
regional and national conferences, including those organized by the Society for
Neuroscience, International Behavioral Neuroscience Society, American
Psychological Society, Eastern Psychological Association, and NEURON (North
East Undergraduate Research Organization for Neuroscience).
Several have successfully competed for the funding
of summer research activities. One received a National Institutes of Health
(NIH) Intramural Research Training Award fellowship and worked in the
laboratories of NIH. Recently, a student spent 10 weeks at Duke University
through a program funded by the National Science Foundation.
A number have enrolled in graduate programs related
to neuroscience at Cornell University Medical Center, Duke University, City
University of New York, University of Dayton, The Pennsylvania State
University, University of California at Los Angeles and the University of
Wisconsin.
Two University graduates currently in
neuroscience-related graduate programs have won highly competitive NSF Graduate
Fellowships. One has been awarded an NRSA predoctoral fellowship and the other
a Fulbright Scholarship to Israel.
Students have developed educational software for
distribution on the Internet. This software was chosen as a Yahoo Pick of the
Week and is used at institutions such as UCLA, The Air Force Academy and Holy
Cross.
Finding out More
You can obtain more information about our neuroscience
major and the field of neuroscience from our web site
http://academic.scranton.edu/department/neuro/.
You are particularly encouraged to explore the neuroscience links associated
with this page. If you wish to discuss the neuroscience major, please contact
J. Timothy Cannon, Ph.D., Director, Neuroscience Program, The University of
Scranton, 204 Alumni Memorial Hall, Scranton, PA 18510. He can be reached at
(570) 941-4266. His e-mail address is cannon@scranton.edu
