History

Neuroscience at UNC-Chapel Hill has a long and illustrious history. Edward Perl, Chair of the Physiology Dept. at the UNC School of Medicine from 1971 to 1989 was an early visionary who viewed neuroscience as a separate discipline, apart from the traditional departments of Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmacology, and Biochemistry. He helped organize UNC scientists working on the brain into the Neurobiology Curriculum (now Neuroscience Curriculum) which was among the first neuroscience PhD granting entities in the US. Dr. Perl was the first President of the Society for Neuroscience, which has now grown into a worldwide organization with more than 35,000 members. The Department of Psychiatry at UNC also has a long history of housing clinician and PhD neuroscientists particularly in the area of brain development. In 1999, the neurodevelopmental unit in Psychiatry was expanded to form the UNC Neuroscience Center with dedicated space to house faculty from several medical school departments. Multiple talented neuroscientists from outside UNC have been recruited into the Neuroscience Center by founding Director, Dr. William Snider and current Director Dr. Mark Zylka and co-Director Dr. Ben Philpot. In 2007, the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD) was established. Under the leadership of Dr. Joseph Piven, the CIDD has become a world leader in basic science and clinical research into autism spectrum and related neurodevelopmental disorders.  There are now more than 75 NIH-funded neuroscientists on the UNC campus, including internationally-known investigators in the areas of neuropharmacology, alcohol research, brain circuits, neurodevelopmental disorders, and schizophrenia.