Contact Information:

If you would like more information on Neuroscience at Columbia, please contact:

David Leyden,          Administrative Manager
Columbia CNI
212-342-1858
dgl2102@columbia.edu

In March 2006, Columbia University announced plans to establish the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, a new scientific research and teaching facility that will serve as the intellectual home for its expanding initiative in mind, brain and behavior. The new center is made possible by a generous gift from Dawn M. Greene and the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, to honor her late husband, Jerome L. Greene (CC’26, Law’28), a prominent New York lawyer, real estate investor and philanthropist. Renowned neurobiologist Thomas Jessell and Nobel laureates Richard Axel and Eric Kandel will assume direction of the new center.

The Jerome L. Greene Science Center will serve as the intellectual home for Columbia’s expanding research initiative in Mind, Brain and Behavior. The Center will include laboratories for Columbia scientists exploring the causal relationship between gene function, brain wiring, and behavior. This research - along with the outstanding research and clinical efforts already underway at the Columbia University Medical Center and on the downtown campus - will have profound implications for the understanding and treatment of many neurological and psychiatric disorders. The Center will establish an educational outreach facility and clinical programs with a focus              
on childhood developmental disorders and diseases of the aging brain.

Through exploration of the organization and function of the brain, the Center will aim to clarify the workings of the mind -- the mental processes that permit us to perceive, act, learn and remember, and that govern the individuality of human action. It will also provide an unparalleled opportunity for linking research in the neurosciences to Columbia’s existing strengths in other scientific disciplines, notably physics, chemistry, engineering, and psychology. In addition, it will have a catalytic role in forging closer ties between the brain sciences, the programs of the business and law schools, and the many schools of the humanities. Through the integration of these programs, the Jerome L. Greene Science Center will ensure Columbia’s continued leadership in the modern study of brain and mind.

“Our generation of scientists has come to believe that the biology of the mind will be as important scientifically to the 21st century as the biology of the gene was for the 20th century. We therefore view the establishment of the Jerome L. Greene Science Center as a major step forward for the study of brain and mind science, both at Columbia and nationally.” Eric Kandel, March 2006.

Subject to public approval, the University plans to locate the center in the Manhattanville neighborhood of West Harlem, in between the Morningside Heights and Medical Center campuses.

Please check back for updates and news on the Jerome L Greene Science Center.