The Neuroscience Major

   Neuroscience is a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding the functioning of the nervous system. The Society for Neuroscience was founded in 1969 with 500 members and today its membership has grown to over 37,000.

   The courses of the Neuroscience curriculum are selected from the Biology, Chemistry, and Psychology Departments. The Neuroscience Program began in 1987 and is under the direction of an interdisciplinary committee. Dr. J. Timothy Cannon of the Psychology Department is its director. In 1995, Dr. Cannon was honored as the CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) Professor of the Year for the state of Pennsylvania. Dr. George R. Gomez, of the Biology Department, is a member of this committee and received the Edward J. Gannon, S.J., Award for Teaching in 2005.

   Based upon a survey published by Franklin and Marshall College, all majors that are most closely related to neuroscience have excellent records of preparing students for the pursuit of doctoral degrees. As would be expected from the strengths of the related departments, the Neuroscience Program has begun to establish an excellent record of its own. Sixty percent of the program's graduates have pursued post-baccalaureate graduate training or have become involved in biomedical research. Graduate careers include: M.D., D.O., D.P.T., D.P.M., M.D./Ph.D. (Neuroscience), Ph.D. (Neuroscience, Psychology, Chemistry, Physiology, and Molecular Biology), Occupational Therapy, Nursing, and Physical Therapy. Graduates with bachelor degrees have been hired as research technicians at Columbia University, Penn, Cornell Medical Center, New York University, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Cephalon Incorporated.

   Students in the neuroscience program are active in a number of professional and extra-curricular activities related to neuroscience.

1. Many are active in the institution’s Faculty/Student Research Program, which encourages students to become involved in ongoing faculty research.

2. They have authored research presented at all but one of the last 22 annual meetings of the Society for Neuroscience. This international meeting involves over 12,000 scientific presentations and attracts over 25,000 researchers from around the world. Five papers co-authored by students were presented this year in Atlanta.

3. In 1997, a University student won the Travel Award offered by the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience in recognition of the best research paper authored by an undergraduate at this meeting.

4. They have attended the past 19 Annual Meetings of the Society for Neuroscience. At this year’s meeting, there were 7 student co-authors associated with the 5 Scranton papers presented.

5. They consistently present their research at regional and national conferences, including those organized by the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society, American Psychological Society, Eastern Psychological Association, NEURON, and The University of Scranton's Psychology Conference.

6. Students have successfully competed for funding of summer research activities at our own institution and nationally at locations including: National Institutes of Health (NIH), Brookhaven National Laboratory, Duke University, CASE Western, Penn State, & University of Texas, Austin.

7. In the past 10 years, students from the University have begun matriculating in graduate programs related to neuroscience at the following institutions: Binghamton University (2), Brown University, Cornell University Medical Center, City University of New York, University of Dayton, Duke University, Emory, Pennsylvania State University, UCLA (2), University of Texas at Austin, University of Wisconsin at Madison, University of Virginia, Yale (2), and University of Maryland.

8. Four University graduates in neuroscience-related graduate programs have won highly competitive NSF Graduate Fellowships, two NRSA pre-doctoral fellowships, and a Fulbright Scholarship to Israel. The most recent winners are currently doctoral students at Brown, UCSF, and Emory.

9. Students regularly make out-reach presentations on neuroscience to local high schools and grade schools including Kids Judge! Neuroscience and our regional Brain Bee. One of our regional Brain Bee winners came in 3rd at the international competition held annually at the University of Maryland.

10. Students have developed educational software for distribution on the world-wide-web. This software was chosen as a Yahoo Pick of the Week and is used internationally at institutions such as UCLA, The Air Force Academy, and Holy Cross.

   Neuroscience students have ample research opportunities in laboratories that can support a diversity of behavioral, biochemical, neurophysiological, and neuroanatomical investigations. This research environment continues to improve. For example, the Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory in the Psychology Department has received a National Science Foundation Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Grant. Additionally, funds from a Howard Hughes Foundation Grant have been used to equip the Neurophysiology Lab in the Biology Department. Within the past 5 years, two neuroscience faculty were awarded federal research grants.

If you wish to discuss the Neuroscience Major, or arrange to take a tour of our facilities, please contact:

J. Timothy Cannon, Ph.D.
Professor, Psychology
Director, Neuroscience Program
204 Alumni Memorial Hall
570-941-4266 (office) 570-586-2022 (home)
CANNON@SCRANTON.EDU
http://academic.scranton.edu/faculty/cannon/

In addition to normal hours, Dr. Cannon is usually in his lab/office on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday evenings and may be contacted at these times.