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 History

Fifty years ago, the study of the brain and behavior resided in a number of different fields of research that independently examined aspects of structure, function, and disease. Anatomists talked to anatomists. Psychologists listened to psychologists. There was little opportunity or inclination to work across disciplines, let alone across schools. So it was with uncommon vision that Louis Flexner, a professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, foresaw that brain science would move forward more rapidly in a collaborative environment that supported integrated research and training.

The Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania continues as one of the world’s preeminent institutions for neuroscience research and training. Acting as the university’s intellectual fulcrum for the study of the brain, the Institute continues to fuel cross-disciplinary thinking and an integrated approach to fundamental, pre-clinical, and clinical research on the brain. With 182 faculty from 32 departments and six schools at Penn, including Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Engineering and Applied Science, Medicine, Nursing, and Veterinary Medicine, the Institute provides a fertile environment that is a template for programs at academic institutions around the world. More than 100 PhD candidates are currently enrolled in its renowned graduate program.
   

Drs. Sprague, Flexner, Stellar, and Barchi, 1993