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Neuroscience

The scientific interests of the Neuroscience Track faculty at Yale represent the full range of the broad and rapidly growing field of neuroscience. Leaders in areas ranging from the genetic and structural analysis of single-membrane channels to the functional characterization of the neocortex are represented in a diverse group of outstanding scientists. In many research areas groups of faculty with different backgrounds apply complementary technologies to similar problems. The long and productive history of multidisciplinary collaboration between basic and applied sciences has also made Yale a leader in clinically relevant neuroscience. The neuroscience faculty members command more than half the university’s biomedical research budget and occupy more than 60,000 square feet of well-equipped laboratory space.

The interdisciplinary research programs of Yale neuroscience faculty are central to the Neuroscience Track. The primary purpose of the Track is to provide students with maximum diversity and depth in the most important areas of neuroscience research. The Track draws on the knowledge and expertise of more than 135 faculty members, representing over twenty departments in both the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine, ranging from Psychiatry to Pharmacology and from Cell Biology to Biomedical Engineering.

The Neuroscience Track seeks to produce neuroscientists with both specialized knowledge and a broad-based understanding of the discipline. A Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience is offered by the university-wide Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (INP), a unified graduate program founded in 1986 and jointly administered by all the participating departments of the neuroscience community at Yale.

The Neuroscience Track at Yale has offered me the most intellectual and sincere community during my time in New Haven. I am surrounded by brilliant people from diverse backgrounds, unified in the goal of building a stronger scientific environment. We immensely value equity & inclusion in this community and welcome anybody who brings a strong sense of commitment to the same values. Importantly, we care for and support each other amidst our hardships or happiest moments. The Neuroscience Track provides a wide range of academic resources such as well-advised rotations for finding a home lab, an interdepartmental collaborative research structure, and cutting-edge technologies to study different aspects of neuroscience – from biological & cellular functions of neurons to imaging and computational modeling of neural circuits. In addition, the Track prioritizes community-building programming, such as the peer mentoring program, countless happy hours, student research talks, and weekly seminars within Yale and across institutions enabling us to network. It is a privilege to perform research with pioneers of the field, including both students and faculty, which the Track at Yale brings together. I cannot wait to see the accomplished and advanced scientists that my peers and I will become in this Track and how we will contribute numerous scientific discoveries to the field of neuroscience.

Atagun (Ata) Isiktas