Columbia Gets $200 Million Gift for Neuroscience Center

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
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<p><a href="http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/03/21/441fcac3ddd10%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/03/21/441fcac3ddd10&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Research at the new center will be headed up by neurobiologist Thomas Jessell and Nobel laureates Richard Axel and Eric Kandel.</p>

<p>They have apparently tapped architect Renzo Piano to design it.</p>

<p>Kind of an understatement by the NY Sun - A</a> $200 Million Gift Could Turn Columbia Into a Force in Study of the Brain, Mind. With Kandel et al they were certainly a force already.</p>

<p>Good news for undergrads, maybe. CU President Bollinger is quoted, "We have this uptown campus and this downtown campus, and yet we don’t find ways to have them interact... With everything I do, I want undergraduates involved. This gives our undergraduates ways to work with our uptown campus as well."</p>

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<p>That's good news.</p>

<p>But, Bollinger is clueless. Numerous of undergrads take classes and/or do research at the med school campus.</p>

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<p>Lol i work in Kandel's lab cuz my dad is his lab supervisor.</p>

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<p>Do you have any interaction w/ the guy? I know someone who worked in Kandel's lab, and she had no interaction w/ him.</p>

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<p>Guess who has a grandson who applied to columbia this year and wants to be a neurosurgeon?</p>

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<p>No. Kandel sits in his office all day. He doesnt even write the publications- his staff does and he gets the credit (well he supposedly comes up with the ideas for the research topic). But at COlumbia, its widely known that Kandel's Nobel Prize for memory cognition, is wishy-washy in terms of a specific contribution.</p>

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<p>I bet he has no oversight and has no idea what he's signing his name to. A lot of these bigwig profs could have postdocs pulling fast ones on them. That's what got David Baltimore in deep sh1t trouble.</p>

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<p>axel went to, and taught at stuy. nobel laureate with the axel patents right there. Stuy STAND UP!!!</p>

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<p>BxSci still has way more Nobellists, doesn't it?</p>

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<p>I was thinking of majoring somewhere in this field, but knowing that Columbia just received this grant, I was wondering how long it would take to fully develop this department into a leading force in that field.</p>

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<p>This wouldn't -- and shouldn't -- affect you much as an undergrad.</p>