Endowed Professorship in Neuroscience The College of Wooster has a strong legacy of providing its undergraduates with an outstanding liberal education in the sciences as evidenced by the number of alumni who have chosen careers as scientists, professors, and medical professionals. As science evolves, the College must keep pace with emerging scientific fields to continue its tradition of excellence. Neuroscience is an exciting, diverse, and expanding field that incorporates biology, psychology, chemistry, philosophy, computer science, and other disciplines in the study of the nervous system. The creation of a permanent endowed professorship in neuroscience will propel forward the teaching, research, course development and advising that are essential to Wooster’s students and faculty. Some of the most intriguing questions in the life sciences involve how the brain works, how we perceive and respond to stimuli, and how emotion and thinking are linked. These questions cannot be answered by one discipline alone, but require a multi-disciplinary approach. The Neuroscience Program at The College of Wooster was established in 2008 and is a multi-disciplinary and growing program with curriculum consisting of a combination of fundamental courses that are also currently required for majors in chemistry, biology, and psychology. Between 2008-09 and 2010-11, a total of nine students graduated from Wooster with majors in neuroscience; in 2011-12 a total of sixteen seniors graduated with neuroscience majors. Currently, there are seven seniors and twenty juniors who plan to major in neuroscience. In addition, five current sophomores declared a neuroscience major during their first-year at Wooster. The increased interest among current and entering students in neuroscience and the increased number of students majoring in the field in the past three years has accelerated the need for an endowed professorship in this field. A recent revision to the Neuroscience Program allows majors to focus their study on one of three tracks: Cognitive Behavioral Study, Neurobiology, and Cellular Neurophysiology. The Cognitive Behavioral Study track is currently the most popular with more than 50% of current neuroscience majors indicating a preference for this track. With such an emphasis on these psychology-based courses, faculty in the Department of Psychology will be serving the majority of Wooster’s neuroscience majors in the coming years as well as those students who plan to major in psychology. For this reason, the neuroscientist who holds the endowed chair will be a member of the Department of Psychology but have primary teaching, research, and mentoring responsibilities within the Neuroscience Program. A gift of $2 million would fully endow a professorship in neuroscience for a talented teacher-scholar. This position will support the students and faculty in our Neuroscience Program, specifically in the area of course development, mentoring, and I.S. advising for the Cognitive Behavioral track. The addition of a full-time and permanently endowed position in neuroscience would allow the Neuroscience Program to offer more courses and provide the high quality of faculty-student instruction, collaboration, and advising that is demanded by this growing and multiple-faceted field. For more information, contact development@wooster.edu.