Gerald M. Edelman
Biographical Information
Gerald M. Edelman, Nobel Laureate, is Founding Director of the Neurosciences Institute;
President of the Neurosciences Research Foundation; Professor and Chairman of the
Department of Neurobiology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA. Prior to embarking
on a doctoral degree in science, Gerald Edelman practiced medicine as a Captain in
the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He went on to make important contributions to the fields of
biophysics, protein biochemistry, immunology, cell biology and neurobiology, throughout
a scientific career that now spans six decades. His research achievements have earned him
numerous scientific honors and popular accolades. He shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology
and Medicine in 1972, in recognition of his contributions to understanding the structural
basis for antibody diversity. The focus of his research moved on to developmental biology and in 1975 he was the first to describe the existence of the molecules that allow
the developing neurons of the brain’s circuitry to communicate. He has combined insights
about brain composition, connectivity, structure, function, and evolution to elaborate the
theory of «neural Darwinism». Though remaining emphatically opposed to the analogy of
the brain as a computer, Professor Edelman has recently made use of computers to model
states of human consciousness and conclude that it is an entirely biological phenomenon.
He has written a highly accessible account of his proposed alternative to “hard wiring”
of the brain’s conscious processes in “Bright Air, Brilliant Fire” and is also the author of a
series of more specialist books that develop a novel theory of human consciousness. Gerald
Edelman is not afraid of controversy. He also a master of the art of telling a story and
among other things, an accomplished musician. |
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