Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins

In 1979, Joshua Lederburg, recently appointed president of Rockefeller University, was in recruiting mode. Based on his long-term interest in the brain and psychiatry, Josh approached me with an attractive offer for myself and my colleagues Joe Coyle and Mike Kuhar. I visited our Dean, Richard Ross, to say goodbye, as I knew that Hopkins could never provide us Rockefellerlike resources. While Ross couldn’t match the Rockefeller offer for a professor, he had an alternative proposal. Years earlier, an advisory committee had recommended that Hopkins establish a Department of Neuroscience. Dr. Ross suggested a mini-department comprised solely of myself, Coyle, and Kuhar, which might integrate Hopkins neuroscience. In contrast to the tens of millions of dollars provided nowadays as dowries for new departmental directors, the Dean offered only a modest annual budget that could be ‘‘saved’’ for the three years till a single floor would become available for our department. Dan Nathans, Director of Microbiology and a valued confidant, advised that a new department must be done ‘‘right’’ so I should ask for triple the offered space. The Dean agreed, and on July 1, 1980, our department commenced operations. Today, Neuroscience is the largest basic science department at Hopkins. Our faculty has done well. Among present and emeritus members, three of our primary faculty have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, four are fellows of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, two of the American Philosophical Society, two have received the Lasker Award, two the National Medal of Science, and various faculty members have accumulated more than 13 honorary doctorates. Science citation analysis indicates that of the eight most highly cited Johns Hopkins medical scientists, five are appointed in our department. For the decade 1989–1998, four of the world’s 16 most highly cited neuroscientists were from Hopkins, with no other institution having more than one. But neuroscience at Hopkins did not begin in 1980. Johns Hopkins has a long tradition of contributions in the field. More than most other institutions, Hopkins’ efforts in the neurosciences encompass clinical as well as basic science. Let me relate some of these in a brief panorama that is not meant to be exhaustive but merely to illustrate a few major themes, especially the breadth of research and the uniquely collegial relationships of Hopkins neuroscientists.