The Institute of Neuroscience (ION) is a group of biologists, psychologists, mathematicians, and human physiologists at the University of Oregon that has pooled its expertise to tackle fundamental questions in neuroscience – questions such as:
- How do neural circuits produce behavior?
- What can computational approaches tell us about how the brain operates?
- How do neural stem cells choose between self-renewal and differentiation?
- What mechanisms generate the large diversity of neurons within the brain?
- How do these neurons 'wire up' into functional circuits?
- What are the circuits of reward, addiction, memory, and cognitive flexibility?
Interdepartmental Neuroscience Graduate Program
The Interdepartmental Neuroscience Graduate Program (INGP) strives to help students think independently, creatively, and critically about problems in neuroscience.
Research News
John Postlethwait and Adam Miller received a Keck Award for using zebrafish to unlock new approaches to genetic disease.
Cris Niell and an international team of colleagues are selected to establish the Simons Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience (SCENE), with funding from the Simons Foundation over 10 years. The team will study how the brain transforms sensory information into action in natural contexts.
Judith Eisen is elected to the Society for Developmental Biology Academy
Angelique Allen wins "People's Choice Award" from The Science Coalition for her Fund It Forward Video Challenge Entry. You can watch her award-winning video on The Science Coalition's YouTube channel.
Judith Eisen is elected to the National Academy of Science! University of Oregon neuroscientist Judith Eisen has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her work on neuron development and how the enteric nervous system in the gut regulates and interacts with microbes in the intestine. Congratulations to Judith!
Judith Eisen was awarded the George Steisinger Award from the International Zebrafish Society. This award recognizes Dr. Eisen's long track record of pioneering research in developmental neurobiology and her innovative ongoing research program to understand host-microbe interactions and their impact on the nervous system.
Collaboration
ION boasts a highly collaborative faculty with expertise in genetics, development, electrophysiology, optogenetics, functional imaging, computational modeling, and theory. As a result, students enrolled in our PhD program come away with the broad conceptual and technical skills necessary to be an independent and successful scientist. Our state-of-the-art facilities and excellent support staff allow ION members to progress rapidly from exploratory and pilot experiments to rigorous testing of novel hypotheses.
Community
We're passionate about creating a welcoming community of scientific investigators and scholastic teachers who work to ensure that all members are valued and supported. Together we can achieve much more than we can as individuals, and all of us can make valuable and important contributions to the research and teaching mission.
Undergraduate Major in Neuroscience
A longstanding area of research excellence and a popular new major, neuroscience takes center stage at the University of Oregon
Trainee Awards
2026 URS Poster Winners
Rubi Ruopp - Graduate Student
Angelique Allen - Graduate Student
Kana Suzuki - Graduate Student
Shelby Sharpe - Graduate Student
Nayantara Arora - Undergraduate Student
Alexa Wright - Undergraduate
