William B Kristan receives Award for Education in Neuroscience
WASHINGTON, DC — The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) will present the Award for Education in Neuroscience to William B. Kristan, PhD, of the University of California, San Diego. The prize recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to neuroscience education and training. The award will be presented at Neuroscience 2015, SfN’s annual meeting and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.
“Dr. Kristan exemplifies what it truly means to be an educator, working diligently to connect students and faculty to shape neuroscience education for the better,” SfN President Steven Hyman said. “His dedication and enthusiasm for neuroscience deserves to be recognized, and his work has greatly inspired the next generation of scientists.”
Kristan has demonstrated excellence in both undergraduate and graduate neuroscience education for several decades. As director of the UCSD Neurosciences Graduate Program from 1997 to 2004, his efforts were crucial to reshaping the curriculum and uniting faculty and students across multiple institutes. In this capacity, Kristan established “Neurobiology Boot Camp,” in which the entering graduate students participate in a two-week intensive introductory course of lectures and hands-on exposure to a wide range of experimental techniques. This course ensures that all students in the program have a broad understanding of neuroscience and also instills a strong sense of community among the student body that is carried with them throughout their graduate education.
Kristan’s contribution to neuroscience education reaches far beyond UCSD. As a faculty member for the neural systems and behavior course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., he has trained students from around the world in the fundamental principles of neural circuitry. In his own lab, Kristan studies how neural networks in the brain are formed and how they work together to produce different behaviors.
The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is an organization of nearly 40,000 basic scientists and clinicians who study the brain and nervous system.
