The undergraduate major in neuroscience is now in its thirteenth year. Officially established in the 1992-93 academic year after several years of planning and developing by the UCLA College Neuroscience Group, its majors now number approximately three hundred students. Through its continually growing list of course offerings, it now serves a total of over six hundred students a year.

The goal of the major is to provide an undergraduate introduction to the study of the nervous system at all levels of analysis. This concept is embodied in the core of the curriculum, the year-long series “Neuroscience: From Molecules to Mind.” The courses in this series, as well as others in the major, emphasize critical thinking and analysis, and an introduction to laboratory research. Students are encouraged to complete an independent research project in a faculty member’s laboratory and present their work in the annual Neuroscience Undergraduate Poster Session. Students also have the option to complete a Neuroscience Laboratory course, which provides hands-on experience with important methodology and experimental approaches in neuroscience. Additionally, the major requires a Neuroanatomy Laboratory, taught by the 1997 Luckman Distinguished Teaching Award winner, Arnold Scheibel, M.D., of the Department of Neurobiology.

This interdisciplinary major avails itself of the wealth of neuroscience resources at UCLA, and receives teaching contributions from Physiological Science, Psychology, and Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology in the College of Letters and Science, and Anesthesiology, Biological Chemistry, Neurobiology, Neurology, Physiology, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Medicine, and the Brain Research Institute in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. In total, over sixty faculty from the College of Letters and Science and the School of Medicine participate in the major. Their enthusiasm and generosity have been essential to the success of this program. To date, there nearly 300 students enrolled in the program, and 807 Bachelor of Science degrees in neuroscience have been awarded since 1994.

For more information regarding the Neuroscience Major at UCLA, click here.