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1995: Helen Wills Donation

In 1995, Helen Wills Moody (UC Berkeley class of 1925) endowed the Neuroscience PhD Program, a gift that brought researchers on campus together around a common goal to train the next generation of leaders in neuroscience. The Center for Neuroscience (later called the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute) was created in 1997 under the leadership of Professors Carla Shatz and Corey Goodman to meet the programmatic needs of integrating the diverse campus neuroscience community, to provide a home for new faculty appointed jointly in a variety of existing departments, and to oversee the Neuroscience PhD Program. The Neuroscience PhD Program accepted its first class in fall 2001.

Photo of Helen Wills Moody courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.