Nicholas James Strausfeld
I
received my B. Sc. and then my Ph.D. at University College, London,
the latter under the advisorship of Dr. David Blest. It was he who
saw to my training as a researcher and also provided an education
in literature and an appreciate of the unusual. I much benefited
from a background of advice from Brian Boycott, one the 20th century’s
great neuroanatomists.
My
own predilections for anatomical studies and in vision research
were hugely influenced by my growing up in a home suffused by visual
stimuli, my father being a graphic artist and painter and my mother
a weaver. After getting my Ph.D. in 1968 I went to Frankfurt University
for a postdoctoral stint under the aegis of the Alexander von Humboldt
Foundation. From 1971 until 1975 I was a staff scientist at the
Max Plank Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, and
then from 1975 until 1986 I worked at the European Molecular Biology
Laboratory in Heidelberg during which time I took my German Habilitation
at Frankfurt. My move to the University of Arizona’s Division of
Neurobiology brought me to one of the very few places that fosters
neuroscientists who who believe that insects have much to offer
to basic and biomedical research - a position more than vindicated
by the last decade’s advances in evolutionary studies suggesting
that vertebrates are perversely derived from up-side-down arthropods.
I
am currently a Regents Professor at the Division of Neurobiology
and hold several joint appointments at the University, including
one in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and as
an Adjunct Professor of Art.
My
main research interests, described separately, are in the functional
organization of the visual system, in the functional organization
of brain centers serving learning and memory, and in the evolution
of the nervous system. Other data is listed in my
Curriculum Vitae and publications
list.
flybrain@neurobio.arizona.edu
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