Biography
Dr. Gerald Edelman won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1972 for
his early studies on the structure and diversity of antibodies.
He founded The Neurosciences Institute in 1981 as an independent,
nonprofit organization to emphasize the scientific "big picture" and
devise and test innovative theories of how the brain works,
specifically higher brain functions. He is a pioneer and a thought
leader in the search for the biological basis of consciousness and is
known for his groundbreaking and elegant theory of mind, "Neural
Darwinism" or "Neuronal Group Selection", that is a multidisciplinary
theory, bringing together and extending insights about brain
composition, connectivity, structure, function, and evolution. He has
authored several books that have received wide acclaim: Neural Darwinism: The Theory of Neuronal Group Selection; Topobiology: An Introduction to Molecular Embryology; The Remembered Present: A Biological Theory of Consciousness; Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter of the Mind; The Brain; A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination, and Wider than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness. He has co-invented a series of brain-based devices, the Darwin series of automata, whose behavior is controlled by a simulated nervous system.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Dr. Edelman has been the recipient
of numerous awards, honors, and honorary degrees. He has given the Carter-Wallace Lectures at Princeton University in 1965, the National Institutes of Health Biophysics and Bioorganic Chemistry Lectureship at Cornell University in 1971, and delivered the Darwin Centennial Lectures at the Rockefeller University in 1971. In 1972, he was the first Felton Bequest Visiting Professor at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. He has received the Spencer Morris Award of the University of Pennsylvania in 1954, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry given by the American Chemical Society in 1965, and the Annual Alumni Award of
Ursinus College in 1969. He is a member of the National Academy of
Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, and several other scientific societies. He has
authored over 500 research publications.
Dr. Edelman received the B.S. degree, magna cum laude, in 1950 from
Ursinus College, PA, the M. D. degree in 1954 from the Medical School
of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Ph.D. degree in 1960 from
the Rockefeller Institute (now University).
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