Steven A. Siegelbaum, HHMI investigator

Introduction in HHMI

Dr. Siegelbaum is also Professor of Pharmacology in the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He received his A.B. degree in biochemical sciences from Harvard College and his Ph.D. degree from Yale University, where he studied the role of calcium in cardiac electrical activity. He then did postdoctoral research with David Colquhoun at University College London and with Philippe Ascher at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, studying the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor ion channel. Dr. Siegelbaum has received the Herbert J. Kayden Award in biomedical science from the New York Academy of Sciences.

Last Thursday our program invited Dr. Siegelbaum over to give a talk. Before hand we read the pre-print handed out by him, it's the 2004 paper in cell. Actually this paper elicited strong discussion in our class, although a little bit negative to it. It's normal because it's really hard when things suddenly comes to behavior level, every result significant or unsignificant, hard to believe, expecially for molecularists. It's hard to deny that this paper can go to Cell probably partly because of the biggest people in neuroscience, Kandel. He is a extreme character in scientific world, as David said.

When I first saw Steve on the seminar, he is like the picture above, looks very nice as David told us. Actually I heard his voice when he came to David's office and I was just in the lab doing experiments. I like the way he walked slowly in the front while speaking, with the look of thinking deeply. That's the scientist, I said to myself. He started from the background of cerebellum, then come the HCN channels and the figures from the paper, not staying there too long, he went to his non-Hebbian thoery---Input Timing-Dependent Plasticity(ITDP). The question section was really hot. Paul Adams was also there. Of course he will definitely be the core listener. One of his questions is actully mine. :( :( Like always, later on I felt very regretted for being not confident enough to ask questions.

Later we eat lunch together. That's a very nice time. I planned to wrote something about him. But coming up so late, I could simply wrote a diary, forgetting all those words I kept in mind to say.