Columbia celebrated the 80th birthday of Nobel laureate neuroscientist and University Professor Eric Kandel with a daylong symposium on November 20. Seventeen colleagues and former students gave addresses describing how Kandel’s work on brain function inspired their own research on topics ranging from the emotions of mice to the neuronal underpinning of moral thought. PBS talk-show host Charlie Rose, with whom Kandel is currently cohosting a yearlong series of special episodes on the brain, emceed a dinner. “One of the things that amazes me about being 80 years old is that I get as much joy out of science today as I did when I began,” says Kandel. “That’s because exciting things keep on popping up.”
