Princeton Weekly Bulletin November 21, 2005, Vol. 95, No. 10 search prev next
Page One
• New neuroscience institute will bridge disciplines, take innovative approach
• Hall at Whitman College will honor class of 1981
Inside
• Colleges offer area’s first higher-ed jobs database
• Jamal takes personalized approach to study of Middle East, Arab-American community
People
• Cohen and Tank to lead new institute
• University Center for Human Values names visiting faculty, fellows
• People, spotlight, appointment
Almanac
• Nassau Notes
• Calendar of events
• By the numbers
Cohen and Tank to lead new institute
Princeton NJ — Jonathan Cohen and David Tank, who have been selected to lead the new Princeton Institute in Neuroscience, come from markedly different backgrounds but share a common vision — facts that make them ideally suited to direct this cross-disciplinary effort.
Jonathan Cohen (left) and David Tank, pictured here in front of the display wall in Icahn Laboratory, will lead the new Princeton Institute in Neuroscience. (Photo: Denise Applewhite)
Cohen, whose specialty is cognitive neuroscience, joined the psychology faculty in 1998. His research focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying cognitive control, and their disturbance in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression, using behavioral and brain imaging methods together with computational modeling. He was named director of the Center for the Study of Brain, Mind and Behavior when it was created in 2000 and was responsible for acquiring the center’s fMRI scanner. He also has directed the certificate program in neuroscience since it was established in 2001.
A graduate of Yale University, Cohen earned his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He did his internship and residency in psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Cohen earned his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Carnegie Mellon University in 1990, then served on the faculty there and at the University of Pittsburgh before coming to Princeton. He also directed the schools’ joint Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience Lab.
Tank joined the molecular biology and physics faculties in 2001. He also is a member of the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics. He develops and applies physics-based measurement techniques to study dynamic aspects of the nervous system, from the level of single neurons to the whole brain. He currently is investigating a form of neural activity important in holding and manipulating information in short-term memory.
Tank was a researcher from 1983 to 2001 at Bell Laboratories, where he also served for more than a decade as the director of the biological computation research department. He earned his B.S. in physics and mathematics from Case Western Reserve University and his Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.