Elucidating the mechanisms underlying brain function.

• Faculty are highly collaborative with many joint research projects with other faculty on campus and throughout the country.

• Neuroscience faculty bring in more than 1/3 of UT Austin’s NIH research dollars, including 4 NIH training grants—one of the most prestigious pre- and post-doc training programs in the country.

• The group represents one of the largest concentration of scientists studying the fields of learning and memory and alcohol addiction in the country.

The Department of Neuroscience faculty study molecular, cellular, behavioral, and computational neuroscience, with the goals of elucidating basic mechanisms of nervous system function and provide a basis for deeper understanding of neuropsychiatric disease. The Department is particularly well represented in the disciplines of behavioral, cellular and molecular, cognitive, computational and systems neuroscience.

Research centers affiliated with the Department investigate specialized areas including learning and memory, addiction, sensory perception, and theoretical neuroscience. Faculty in the Center for Learning and Memory study neural circuit function, from high resolution imaging of synaptic connectivity to manipulation and recording of neurons, circuits and behavior, and imaging of circuit function in humans. The Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research seeks to further understanding of substance abuse disorders as a treatable disease of the brain at genetic, molecular, electrophysiological and behavioral levels. The Center for Perceptual Systems employs neurophysiological, anatomical, computational and mathematical methods to advance our understanding of neural information processing in sensory perception. The Center for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience develops new theoretical approaches to better understand neural computation in collaboration with the departments of Mathematics, Computer Science, Psychology, Physics and Engineering.

STUDENTS

1,115 Undergraduate (in various degree programs) (Fall 2020)
53 affiliated Graduate (Fall 2020)

FACULTY

38 faculty
1 member of the National Academy of Sciences
7  Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowships
3  McKnight Foundation Awards
1 Searle Scholars Awards
5 Whitehall Foundation Awards
1  Presidential Early Career Award
3  National Science Foundation Career Awards
1 Kingenstein Fellowship
1 Gruber Award in Neuroscience
1 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences
6 College of Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Awards 

RESEARCH

Alzheimer’s Disease / Behavioral Neuroscience / Cognition & Perception / Computational & Theoretical Neuroscience / Epilepsy / Depression / Functional & Molecular Imaging / Ion Channels / Neurotransmitter Receptors / Learning and Memory / Neural Development & Plasticity / Neurobiology of Addiction / Neurodegenerative Disease & Injury / Neuroendocrinology / Neurogenetics / Parkinson’s Disease / Schizophrenia / Synaptic Biology & Small Circuits / Systems & Integrative Neuroscience