NUIN History

The Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience (NUIN) community has existed as a cross-campus, interdepartmental community since the late 1970s. It became an important component of the Northwestern University Neuroscience Institute in the 1990s under the directorship of Dr. Enrico Mugniani and then returned to a stand-alone PhD program, the NUIN PhD program, in 2006 when the institute was dissolved. Since 2006, NUIN has been directed by professors John Disterhoft, Indira Raman, Anis Contractor, Dave McLean and Geoff Swanson.

Since the 1990s, NUIN has graduated hundreds of PhD students and has comprised a diverse faculty from the Evanston undergraduate campus, the Chicago Feinberg School of Medicine campus, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.

NUIN has administered five prestigious NIH Neuroscience Training Grant programs and has helped launch a grant funded postbaccalaureate program for students traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. NUIN alumni have furthered their contributions to science by running research laboratories in academic, government and industrial settings, pursuing careers in the technology sector, overseeing grants management, teaching in higher education, administering graduate programs, starting companies and numerous other careers.