Neuroscience History Affinity Group

Mission and Goals:

The Neuroscience History Archives (NHA) promotes the advancement and diffusion of knowledge about the history of neuroscience. Through the identification, collection, and preservation of primary source material of twentieth century American neuroscience, the NHA seeks to create a documentary heritage for future generations that will represent the ideas, actions, and accomplishments of the discipline's antecedent practitioners.

Activities:

The NHA identifies and preserves the papers of living neuroscientists and records of their professional organizations; assists neuroscientists in finding appropriate repositories for their papers; promotes access to this documentary evidence through the preparation of finding aids and other guides; facilitates scholarly use of the collections; and carries out research and education in the history of neuroscience.

History

As one of the first archives to focus solely on a biomedical discipline, the Neuroscience History Archives was established in 1980 at the UCLA Brain Research Institute in response to the scholarly need for documentation of American neuroscience in the twentieth century. With modest support from the National Library of Medicine and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, reference resources were complemented by primary materials such as oral histories, personal papers, and organizational records. The work continues, with income from the Frances O'Malley Trust, under the oversight of and in collaboration with the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, the Brain Research Institute, and the Division of Medical History of the Department of Neurobiology in the UCLA School of Medicine.

Affinity Group Participants:

Joel Braslow, MD, PhD
Professor, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and History; Center for Social Medicine

Russell A. Johnson, MA, MLS
Archivist, History and Special Collections Division, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library

Carmine D. Clemente, MD
Professor Emeritus, Neurobiology

Judy Consales, MLS
Director, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library

Anne Gilliland-Swetland, PhD
Professor, Information Science

Robert Lemelson, PhD
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Anthropology; Founder & President, Foundation for Psycho-cultural Research

Ynez V. O'Neill, PhD
Professor Emeritus, Medical History

Kenneth B. Wells, MD, MPH
Professor, Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences

Peter C. Whybrow, MD
Professor and Chair, Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences; Director, Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior

Eran Zaidel, PhD
Professor Emeritus, Psychology

How to Join

Please email the Director of the Affinity Group for more information

Joel Braslow, MD, PhD.
jbraslow@ucla.edu