Michael Merzenich
Michael
Merzenich
Michael Merzenich (Photo: Peter Bagde).
Michael Merzenich is Professor Emeritus in Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco.
Born in Lebanon, Oregon, Merzenich gained a first degree in science at the University of Portland in 1964, and earned a PhD in physiology at Johns Hopkins University in 1968. After postdoctoral research at Madison, Wisconsin, he joined the UCSF Department of Otolaryngology, working on a prototype for today’s electronic cochlear implants. He was Co-Director of the Coleman Memorial Laboratory, then Co-Director of the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at UCSF until retirement in 2007.
From 1996 to 2003 he led the company Scientific Learning, then co-founded Posit Science, developing computer-based ‘brain training’ for enhancing cognitive performance.
Merzenich is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine. His awards include the Zülch Prize of the Max-Planck Institute, the Purkinje Medal, and the Karl Spencer Lashley Award.
Life story: Michael Merzenich
Michael Merzenich giving a lecture at the 2016 Kavli Prize week (Photo: Thomas Eckhoff).
Healthy adult human brain viewed from the side. The brain is viewed as if looking through the head from a person’s right ear. Brain cells communicate with each other through these nerve fibers, which have been visualised using diffusion imaging tractography. (Credit: Henrietta Howells, NatBrainLab, Wellcome Images)
Read the life story of Kavli Prize Laureate Michael Merzenich:
Watch videoes with Michael Merzenich:
Michael Merzenich rethinks how brains can change.