Dear Friends,

It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Professor Barry W. Connors, Ph.D., L. Herbert Ballou University Professor, as chair of the Department of Neuroscience, effective March 1, 2006. Professor Connors will succeed John P. Donoghue, Ph.D., Henry Merritt Wriston Professor of Neuroscience, who has ably presided over the department for more than ten years and who has decided to devote himself full time to the ever-growing Brain Sciences Program, his research, and teaching. More on this shortly and under separate cover.

After earning a Ph.D. degree in physiology and pharmacology from Duke University, Professor Connors completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at Stanford University. Following a five-year tenure on the faculty at Stanford, Professor Connors came to Brown in 1987 as an assistant professor to what was then the Section of Neurobiology.

Professor Connors’s research focus is the physiology of neurons, synapses, and circuits in the mammalian brain, in particular the cerebral cortex and thalamus. The basic mechanisms of epilepsy constitute an additional area of interest.

Highly esteemed among his colleagues here at Brown, Professor Connors also enjoys a national and an international reputation. His accomplishments in his field are outstanding and numerous, and his work has been recognized by many awards and honors, including a Research Career Development Award from the NIH, a Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and two Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awards from Brown Medical School. The author of more than 100 books, book chapters, reviews, and articles, and a member of several editorial and review boards, Professor Connors is also a longstanding editor of the Journal of Neuroscience, the official journal of the Society of Neuroscience. Professor Connors is a frequent invited lecturer throughout the world, an associate of the Neuroscience Research Program, and a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the American Epilepsy Society, and the American Physiological Society. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention Professor Connors’s key role in the professional development of many young scientists here at Brown, including five Ph.D. students and 18 postdoctoral students.

In his new role as chair, Professor Connors will aim to enhance the department’s tradition of quality and innovation in scientific research and in graduate and undergraduate education. I have no doubt that Professor Connors’s leadership will take an already thriving, productive, and highly regarded department to new levels of both excellence and eminence.

These are heady times for the neurosciences at Brown, marked by the move of the Department of Neuroscience to its new home in the soon-to-be inaugurated Life Sciences Building, the acceleration of the growth and development of the Brain Science Program, the ever greater coalescence with all things behavioral throughout our Health Sciences Center and the all but limitless possibilities in the bioengineering interfaces throughout our collective scientific and clinical enterprise.

Please join me in welcoming Professor Connors to this new position, and on wishing him well.

Best,

Eli









				Dear Friends, It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Professor Barry W. Connors, Ph.D., L. Herbert Ballou University Professor, as chair of the Department of Neuroscience, effective March 1, 2006. Professor Connors will succeed John P. Donoghue, Ph.D., Henry Merritt Wriston Professor of Neuroscience, who has ably presided over the department for more than ten years and who has decided to devote himself full time to the ever-growing Brain Sciences Program, his research, and teaching. More on this shortly and under separate cover. After earning a Ph.D. degree in physiology and pharmacology from Duke University, Professor Connors completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at Stanford University. Following a five-year tenure on the faculty at Stanford, Professor Connors came to Brown in 1987 as an assistant professor to what was then the Section of Neurobiology. Professor Connors’s research focus is the physiology of neurons, synapses, and circuits in the mammalian brain, in particular the cerebral cortex and thalamus. The basic mechanisms of epilepsy constitute an additional area of interest. Highly esteemed among his colleagues here at Brown, Professor Connors also enjoys a national and an international reputation. His accomplishments in his field are outstanding and numerous, and his work has been recognized by many awards and honors, including a Research Career Development Award from the NIH, a Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and two Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awards from Brown Medical School. The author of more than 100 books, book chapters, reviews, and articles, and a member of several editorial and review boards, Professor Connors is also a longstanding editor of the Journal of Neuroscience, the official journal of the Society of Neuroscience. Professor Connors is a frequent invited lecturer throughout the world, an associate of the Neuroscience Research Program, and a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the American Epilepsy Society, and the American Physiological Society. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention Professor Connors’s key role in the professional development of many young scientists here at Brown, including five Ph.D. students and 18 postdoctoral students. In his new role as chair, Professor Connors will aim to enhance the department’s tradition of quality and innovation in scientific research and in graduate and undergraduate education. I have no doubt that Professor Connors’s leadership will take an already thriving, productive, and highly regarded department to new levels of both excellence and eminence. These are heady times for the neurosciences at Brown, marked by the move of the Department of Neuroscience to its new home in the soon-to-be inaugurated Life Sciences Building, the acceleration of the growth and development of the Brain Science Program, the ever greater coalescence with all things behavioral throughout our Health Sciences Center and the all but limitless possibilities in the bioengineering interfaces throughout our collective scientific and clinical enterprise. Please join me in welcoming Professor Connors to this new position, and on wishing him well. Best, Eli