Yadin Dudai
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"Predicting not to predict too much: How the memory machinery in our brain anticipates the uncertain future" |
Yadin Dudai is a world-renown neuroscientist who holds the Sela Professor in Neurobiology and Heads the Department of Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Dudai's research interests encompass the neurobiology of learning and memory, memory as a concept and as a brain faculty, and the interrelationships among the two. Using molecular, cellular and behavioral methods he made major contributions to this field. His most important discoveries were into the understanding of the conversion of one-shot experiences into long-term memory, and the retrieval and post-retrieval fate of items in memory (including remodeling, extinction, suppression, erasure and forgetting).
Prof. Dudai studied biochemistry and genetics, with supplements in modern history, at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Weizmann Institute of Science and conducted his postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, where he had been on the team that pioneered neurogenetic analysis of memory.
Over the years has been a visiting Professor at many academic and research institutions worldwide, including Columbia University (NY), the National Institute of Health (Bethesda), Harvard University (Boston), Edinburgh University (Scotland), College de France (Paris), and Boston University (Boston).
With research interests that include the brain and behavioral mechanisms of learning and memory, Prof. Dudai has over 180 professional publications in the field of brain and memory, including key books in the discipline. He has been awarded numerous honors, is a member of professional bodies in the fields of science, education, and science-society interactions, and serves on the boards of scientific journals in the neurosciences. Prof. Dudai also has professional experience in administration, R&D planning, and journalism.
He has held multiple posts in public and academic life in Israel and abroad, including Advisor on Science Policy in the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, member of the Granting and Planning Committee of the Israeli Council for Higher Education (VATAT), member of the Israeli and international Pugawsh group, chair of the life-sciences teaching program and of the postdoctoral programs at the Feinberg Graduate School of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Dean of the Faculty of Biology and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology and of the Brain Research Centers at the Weizmann Institute. He is also the Albert and Balanche Willner Family Global Distinguished Visiting Professor of Neuroscience, New York University. |
