In the early 1990s, neuroscience at Berkeley was distributed across campus in many different departments. MCB’s Division of Neurobiology was established as the intellectual center for molecular and cellular neurobiology. Similarly, the Department of Psychology emerged as the de facto center for behavioral and cognitive neuroscience. The campus neuroscience community needed to be unified.
Starting in the mid-1990s, we began to lay the groundwork for a much bolder and more interactive program on campus stretching from genes and molecules to behavior and cognition. This was felt to be critical since neuroscience transcends the boundaries that define traditional academic departments and modes of education and support. Indeed, neuroscience has emerged as its own multidisciplinary field, spanning almost every area of modern science from psychology to biology to physical science.
