Stanford University
300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, CA 94304
USA
TRAM Presents:
Careers and Research: A Personal Perspective
The TRAM program fosters education by offering a monthly seminar series and a research retreat. Our seminars include invited speakers who are recognized leaders in translational research and applied medicine. The sessions are open to all members of the campus community.
Presenter: Carla Shatz, PhD
Professor Biology and Neurobiology
Stanford University
Carla Shatz graduated from Radcliffe College in 1969 with a B.A. in chemistry. She received an M.Phil. in Physiology from the University College London in 1971 on a Marshall Scholarship. In 1976, she received a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Harvard Medical School, where she studied with the Nobel laureates David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel. From 1976 to 1978 she obtained postdoctoral training with Dr. Pasko Rakic in the department of neuroscience, Harvard Medical School.
In 1978, Dr. Shatz moved to Stanford University, where she began her studies of the development of the mammalian visual system in the department of neurobiology. She became professor of neurobiology in 1989. In 1992, she moved her laboratory to the department of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, where she became a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
During 1994-1995 she was president of the Society for Neuroscience and served on the Council of the National Academy of Sciences from 1998 to 2001. From 2000 until 2007, she was the chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and the Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology. She also helped to develop the Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair (now named the NeuroDiscovery Center) and led the Harvard Center for Brain Imaging. Dr. Shatz is the inaugural chair holder of The Sapp Family Provostial Professorship, holds professorship appointments in both the Biology department (School of Humanities and Sciences) and in Neurobiology (School of Medicine) and is the David Starr Jordan Director of the Bio-X program at Stanford University School of Medicine.
In her research, Shatz has uncovered mechanisms that the brain uses to select which connections to either strengthen or prune back as brain circuits form. She also discovered that well-known proteins, previously associated exclusively with the immune system, play a role in this pruning process.
About the Event:
This event is free and open to all members of the campus community. Learn more