Erin Schuman is a neurobiologist who studies synapses, the connections between neurons. She was born in San Gabriel, California, and completed her bachelor's degree in psychology at the University of Southern California (1985) and her Ph.D. in neuroscience at Princeton University (1990). She conducted postdoctoral work in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University. In 1993, she became an assistant professor of biology at Caltech where she moved up the ranks to full professor. In 1997 she was also appointed as an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2009, she became a founding director of the new Max Planck Institute for Brain Research -- scheduled to open February 2013 in Frankfurt, Germany. Erin has been awarded numerous prizes and grants, including a Pew Scholars Award, the Beckman Young Investigator Award, and most recently the Hodgkin Huxley Katz Prize Lecture.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

On January 18, 2013, Caltech hosted TEDxCaltech: The Brain, a forward-looking celebration of humankind's quest to understand the brain, by exploring the past, present and future of neuroscience. Visit TEDxCaltech.com for more details.