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THE PICOWER INSTITUTE

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
43 Vassar Street, Bldg. 46-1303
Cambridge, MA 02139
(+1) 617-324-0305
(+1) 617-452-2588

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the building at dusk
About the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory

The Picower Institute is a community of scientists dedicated to understanding the mechanisms that drive learning and memory and related functions such as cognition, emotion, perception, behavior, and consciousness. Institute neuroscientists explore the brain and nervous system at multiple scales, from genes and molecules, to cells and synapses, to circuits and systems, producing novel insights into how disruptions in these mechanisms can lead to developmental, psychiatric or neurodegenerative disease.

In the spacious, white atrium of MIT Building 46 several young men smile as they stand around MIT's Tim the Beaver mascot. Tim wears a white lab coat and has his hands out at his sides in a joyous gesture.
September 2022
20th Anniversary

The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory celebrates 20 years since the transformative gift of The Picower Foundation. About 1,700 people participated online or in-person in a daylong celebration featuring talks representing each of the Institute's labs. In the Institute's first 20 years, researchers published more than 1,000 papers and trained about 500 scientists. Learn more about their discoveries over the years.

April 2015
The Aging Brain Initiative

To confront the crisis of age-related neurodegenerative disease, the Picower Institute announces The Aging Brain Initiative, a far-reaching, highly collaborative effort involving Picower, the MIT School of Science and  colleagues in  the Neurosciences, Bioengineering, Biology, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Health Economics and  Health Policy.  Led by Institute Director Li-Huei Tsai, the ABI's aim is to focus a broad range of research talent on a single goal:  improving quality of life through fundamental research into how the brain ages in health and in decline.

September 2014
BRAIN Initiative

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) BRAIN Initiative awards grants to five researchers at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. The grants support teams that are exploring cortical circuits and information flow, new methods for high-speed monitoring of synaptic activity, and technologies for non-toxic trans-synaptic tracing. Spearheaded by President Obama in April 2013, the BRAIN Initiative challenges the nation’s leading scientists to deepen their understanding of the human mind and to discover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, and traumatic brain injury.

September 2011
A $25 Million Bequest

A $25 million bequest from the estate of Jeffry Picower helps ensure the long-term health of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory endowment. The gift enables the creation and development of four strategic programs: the Clinical Fellowships in Neuroscience Program, the Picower Neurological Disorder Research Fund, the Junior Faculty Support Fund, and the Symposium Fund.

Li Huei Tsai
August 2009
New Director

Professor Li-Huei Tsai is appointed Director of the Picower Institute. Tsai succeeds Professor Mark Bear, who led the Picower Institute for two-and-a-half years. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Academia Sinica of Taiwan, Tsai joined the Picower Institute in 2006. Her work as a Principle Investigator has created inroads to understanding abnormalities in brain structure and function that lead to neurological disorders. Tsai announced that her goal is to foster collaborations with colleagues both within and outside the Picower Institute.

Mark Bear in his lab
January 2007
Mark Bear Becomes Director

Picower Professor of Neuroscience Mark F. Bear succeeds Susumu Tonegawa as the second director of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. Since joining the Picower Institute in 2003, Professor Bear’s work has focused on how the brain changes in response to experience and how specific molecules, synapses, neurons, and circuits contribute to behavior.

The atrium when it was new
December 2005
New Home

Under the new name the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, faculty staff and students take up residence in the new 411,000-square-foot Brain and Cognitive Sciences complex at the northeast corner of the MIT campus—the world’s largest neuroscience research center to date. Renowned architect Charles Correa collaborated with Goody, Clancy & Associates to create this carefully calibrated machine for scientific inquiry. Correa explained that he sought to embody “the gravitas of science” in the design.

May 2002
A $50 Million Gift

A $50 million gift from the Jeffry M. and Barbara Picower Foundation establishes the Picower Center for Learning and Memory, expanding on the work of what was previously known as the MIT Center for Learning and Memory (CLM). The gift, which was the single largest grant from a private foundation in MIT history, funds a new state-of-the-art facility and four endowed professorships. The gift also helps the new Picower Center establish a variety of core facilities, organize international conferences, and sponsor a visiting scholar program.

A colored image of a brain slice
September 1999
NIMH Center Grant

A National Institute of Mental Health grant is awarded to the Center for Learning and Memory (CLM) at MIT from the Silvio O. Conte Center for Neuroscience Research fund. The Conte Center grant affirms CLM’s capacity to conduct pioneering research with the potential for translation into new methods of diagnosis and treatment for mental illnesses.

April 1998
RIKEN-MIT

RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research Center is created within the Center for Learning and Memory (CLM). The new center represents a deepening of the collaboration between MIT and the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research of Saitama, Japan (RIKEN). The RIKEN-MIT center facilitates joint neuroscience research that leverages the unique resources of the two institutions.

Susumu Tonegawa, Chuck Vest, Kyooichi Tanaka
January 1996
Menicon Professorship

The Center for Learning and Memory (CLM) establishes the Menicon Professorship of Neuroscience at MIT with a $2.5 million gift from Menicon Co., Ltd. The gift supports the recruitment of a senior scientist to the CLM to work at the most advanced frontiers of understanding about the nature of the human mind.

Susumi Tonegawa shaking hands with Dean Robert Birgeneau
May 1994
Center for Learning and Memory

A $5 million gift from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation launches the Center for Learning and Memory (CLM) at MIT to explore the largely uninvestigated biology and neuroscience of learning and memory. The new center reflects the Institute’s deep commitment to the basic science of complex brain functions. Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa is selected as CLM’s founding director.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
43 Vassar Street, Bldg. 46-1303
Cambridge, MA 02139
(+1) 617-324-0305
(+1) 617-452-2588

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