FoundationalConceptsNeuroscience

which he would explore this very subject. His name was Max Del-
briick, and although he had a Nobel Prize for being one of the founders
of the discipline of molecular biology, I had not previously heard
of him. I signed up for his class. After hearing of my interest in the
nature of mind, Max advised me to learn some biology if I expected
to seriously pursue this subject. The mind is related to the brain, and
the brain is a product of biological evolution, and one is unlikely to
make much progress in investigating the mind with no knowledge
of biology, he told me. He offered me the opportunity to work in his
laboratory, and I switched my area of graduate study from theoretical
physics to experimental biology.
As Max Delbriick’s last graduate student, I received a PhD degree
in molecular biology and biophysics, investigating the light-sensing
capacities of the fungus Phycomyces. I began to develop intuition into
biology, but was still a long way from studying consciousness. So I did
postdoctoral work first in neurobiology, then in cognitive psychology.
This lead me in a clinical direction, and I obtained a PhD in clinical
psychology from the University of Oregon. For the next decade I
worked with veterans suffering from alcohol and drug addiction and
post-traumatic stress at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical
Center in San Francisco.
While working at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, I started
teaching neuroscience at the University of California in Berkeley. I
have been teaching there since 1991, fulltime since 2000. Since 2004,
I have also been teaching neuroscience to Tibetan monastics in India.
Throughout this trajectory, from my college years to the present time,
my guiding interest has been and continues to be the scientific inves-
tigation of the mind. There is still much todo...