The Neuroscience Institute at Georgia State University promotes research and education in the set of disciplines that have a common interest in understanding the structure and function of the nervous systems of animals, including humans. It acts as an independent academic department consisting of 17 tenured and tenure-track faculty members who serve as “core faculty”, in addition to having an interdepartmental mission of supporting neuroscience across the University. The interdepartmental components of the Institute link together the core faculty with over 40 associate faculty in other GSU departments who have a strong interest in neuroscience, as well as affiliated faculty across the university. To further fulfill its interdepartmental mission, the Neuroscience Institute serves as the administrative home for the Brains & Behavior Area of Focus which provides graduate fellowships to students in a variety of departmental graduate programs as well as those in the Institute’s Neuroscience Graduate Program, awards competitive seed grants to faculty engaged in neuroscience research, and supports a Distinguished Lecture Series as well as other activities to enrich neuroscience research and training across the GSU campus.
The Neuroscience Institute oversees the Neuroscience Graduate Program which offers doctoral degrees in neuroscience. Both core and associate faculty participate in graduate training under this program, providing students with a wide range of training opportunities. In addition to the Neuroscience Graduate Program, the Institute will begin offering a new undergraduate major in neuroscience in the 2011-12 academic year.