Overview
Neuroscience Center at Dartmouth College Trains the Next Generation of Ph.D. Neuroscientists in Lebanon, New Hampshire
The Neuroscience Center at Dartmouth College (NCD) has quickly earned a reputation as a distinguished neuroscience graduate program since its inception in 2002. Situated in the charming New England town of Lebanon, New Hampshire, the Neuroscience Center offers an interdisciplinary doctoral program that trains the next generation of neuroscientists by focusing on collaborative, interactive research and education in the neurosciences.
Headquartered at Lebanon's Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, NCD provides training toward a Ph.D. degree via the neuroscience track within the Program in Experimental and Molecular Medicine (PEMM). Graduate students benefit from the esteemed program's strengths in clinical, cognitive and behavioral, and molecular/cellular/systems neuroscience.
A private liberal arts institution and Ivy League member, Dartmouth College has the intellectual might of a large university in an intimate setting that fosters close mentor-student relationships. Dartmouth's main campus is in nearby Hanover, New Hampshire, near the banks of the Connecticut River, the natural border between Vermont and New Hampshire. Both Hanover and Lebanon are quintessential small New England towns (populations: 11,000 and 12,700, respectively), yet their cultural attractions and diversity, on-campus and off, match those of larger cities. NCD graduate students can look forward to exploring their unique shops, museums, ethnic restaurants, and night spots.
Hanover, Lebanon, and the surrounding Upper Valley communities are an outdoor enthusiast's paradise. Trekkers can hike the magnificent Appalachian Trail that cuts right through Hanover; ski New Hampshire's White Mountains; go ice skating, canoeing, kayaking; or go spelunking in an ancient cave. When the hunger for a big city hits, Boston, New York City, and Montreal, Canada, are just a few hours away.
Graduate Students and Faculty Members Work at NCD's State-of-the-Art Research Facilities on Three Campuses
The Neuroscience Center at Dartmouth (NCD) promotes multidisciplinary efforts in research facilities in both basic and applied research that focus on understanding the mechanisms that control nervous system function in health and disease. The ultimate goals of research are discoveries that will translate into unique pharmaceutical agents and therapeutic approaches for the treatment of central nervous system diseases and disorders.
NCD graduate students conduct research under the guidance of faculty members in state-of-the-art research facilities at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon; the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, Vermont; and at Dartmouth College in Hanover.
Amidst a collegiate atmosphere of cross-disciplinary interaction and collaboration, NCD doctoral students participate in a robust variety of faculty research programs. Students have the opportunity to participate in ground-breaking research areas as addiction, chronic pain, epilepsy, language development, social cognition and brain science, and mechanisms and treatment of neurodegeneration and schizophrenia.
Faculty research interests at the Neuroscience Center at Dartmouth include areas such as psychological and brain sciences, pediatrics and physiology, biomedical engineering, pharmacology and toxicology, pediatric neurosurgery, psychological and brain sciences, pathology, physiology and pathology, and microbiology and immunology. Dozens of diverse faculty research programs have focused on specific studies of behavioral and neurobiological factors that modulate learning and memory, the role of medullary serotonergic neurons in the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, age-related differences in brain recovery following head trauma, animal and human studies of the actions of antipsychotic drugs, and neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and Parkinson's.
NCD's Neuroscience Program Trains the Next Generation of Neuroscience Research Innovators
The neuroscience program, Program in Experimental and Molecular Medicine (PEMM), emphasizes "translational research," the process of applying ideas, insights, and information generated through basic scientific inquiry to the prevention, cure, or modification of human disease. In part, neuroscience research involves the analysis of a wide range of data from electrical and electro-magnetic sources.
As new technology and neuroscience breakthroughs help researchers delve deeper into the mysteries of brain function and disease, neuroscience research increasingly attracts collaborative efforts from diverse scientific disciplines. NCD's neuroscience program represents the input and campus-wide collaboration of more than 100 faculty members from eighteen departments who work across disciplinary lines with Ph.D. and Ph.D./M.D. students in classrooms and research facilities. On Nueroscience Day, an annual February event, NCD graduate students are introduced to the basic and clinical neuroscience research being conducted at Dartmouth via a series of faculty presentations.
During the first year of the PEMM program, doctoral students participate in three research rotations in different faculty members' laboratories. Students have the option of conducting their second or third rotation with training faculty from Dartmouth's Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) Graduate Program. The rotations train students in a variety of laboratory techniques and methods and expose them to the diverse research areas of the neuroscience program. The rotations also help students select their doctoral thesis laboratory.
The Neuroscience Center at Dartmouth prepares graduate students to become ground-breaking research scientists by developing their abilities to approach problems in an innovative manner, conduct solid and definitive research, work successfully in a team effort, and write and present work to colleagues.
