The memory center of a mouse brain. A region that helps remember social interactions is in green. An area important for remembering locations is in red. (Credit: P. Kassraian et al., Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute.)

The Future in Mind

At Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute, we believe that understanding how the brain works — and gives rise to mind and behavior — is the most urgent and exciting challenge of our time. Led by Daphna Shohamy, PhD, and Nobel laureate Richard Axel, MD, we study critical aspects of the mind and brain, gaining insights that promise to benefit people and societies everywhere.

Our Science: We explore how the brain develops, performs, endures and recovers.

People

Transforming How We Image the Brain

Bringing her engineering and physics expertise to neuroscience, Professor Elizabeth Hillman, PhD, has developed a wide range of multi-scale in-vivo imaging methods including SCAPE microscopy for high-speed 3D imaging of neural activity.

Scientific Platforms: The tools, facilities and people that make our research possible.

Curiosity Corner

A place for students, teachers and parents to discover the questions that real scientists are asking about the brain!


ZUCKERMAN INSTITUTE IN THE NEWS

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The Science Life

An illustrated series exploring the lived experiences of people at a brain science institute.


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Our Mission

At Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, our mission is to decipher the brain. From effective treatments for disorders like Alzheimer’s and autism to advances in fields as fundamental as economics, the arts and law, the potential for humanity is staggering.

Jerome L. Greene Science Center (Credit: Frank Oudeman/Columbia University).

People

Cracking the Brain’s Code


Professor Stefano Fusi, PhD, wants to design technology inspired by the human brain. As a step toward this goal, he is using math to better understand how the brain itself computes information, especially as related to problem solving, reasoning and decision-making. Dr. Fusi’s work could lead to technological advances that have thus far remained beyond our reach.