Nobel Prize-winning scientist Eric R. Kandel, M.D.

08/29 - Nobel Prize-winning Scientist to Lecture at The University of Scranton

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Eric R. Kandel, M.D., will present the Harry Mullin, M.D., Memorial Lecture on September 17 at The University of Scranton. Dr. Kandel will present "The Long and Short of Long Term Memory" at 8 p.m. in the university's Eagen Auditorium, Gunster Memorial Student Center. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Dr. Kandel received the 2000 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his research regarding signal transduction in the nervous system. Dr. Kandel's research involves multiple approaches to clarifying the role of biology in memory formation.

"This work establishes new relationships between molecular biology and mental function and has great potential for addressing the traditional ways we think about learning and mental disease," said Joseph H. Dreisbach, Ph.D., dean of The University of Scranton's College of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Kandel has been honored with the Lucy G. Moses Prize for Research in Basic Neurology (1977), The Dickson Prize in Biology and Medicine (1982), The National Medal of Science (1988), The Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience Research (1991), The Harvey Prize (1993), and the Wolf Prize in Biology and Medicine, Israel (1999).

Dr. Kandel is University Professor of Physiology and Psychiatry at the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, of which he is a founding member. He is senior investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Born in 1929 in Vienna, Austria, Dr. Kandel is a graduate of Harvard College, where he majored in history and literature. He earned a medical degree from New York University School of Medicine, and completed postdoctoral training with Wade Marshall in the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the National Institutes of Health. His residency training in psychiatry took place at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center at Harvard Medical School. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Ladislav Tauc at the Institut Morey in Paris, France.

Before joining the staff of Columbia University, Dr. Kandel was a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and the New York University School of Medicine. In addition to his present position at Columbia, he also served as director of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior.

Dr. Kandel is the author of several scholarly publications, including the textbook, Principles of Neural Science, co-authored with colleagues Columbia University James Schwartz and fellow Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Thomas Jessell.

The Harry Mullin, M.D., Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Mrs. Harry Mullin, Robbin Mullin and University of Scranton alumnus Brian Mullin, M.D., honors a person who dedicated a lifetime of service to his profession and community. The Mullin program has featured some of the world's most distinguished scientists. Dr. Kandel will be the 10th Nobel laureate to speak at the lecture series.

The lecture series honors the late Dr. Harry Mullin, who was born in Olyphant and earned his bachelor's degree from The University of Scranton, then St. Thomas College, in 1931. He graduated from the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical College and performed postgraduate work at Jewish Hospital, Brooklyn, N.Y.

At the Jewish Hospital, Dr. Mullin worked with some of the pioneers of American allergy medicine. After service as a captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, he returned to northeastern Pennsylvania in 1946 to become the area's first allergy specialist.

He was chief of the Department of Allergy at Scranton State Hospital and a staff member and allergy consultant at several other hospitals. Dr. Mullin maintained a private practice from offices in Scranton and Binghamton, N.Y. An early fellow of the American College of Allergists, he was active in many professional and civic organizations.