Stanley B. Prusiner, MD, was born in Brooklyn, New York. He earned his medical degree from Columbia University in New York City in 1961 and completed his internship in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He then entered the U.S
Army Medical Corps Residency Program at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, where he specialized in psychiatry and neurology. Following his military service, Dr. Prusiner entered the world of academic medicine at the University of California San Francisco, where he served as Chief of Neurology for five years before assuming the professorship of Neurology and Neurosciences at University of California San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine in 1980.
Dr. Prusiner received numerous awards during his long career including membership in The National Academy of Sciences; Presidential Citation for Outstanding Research by the National Academy of Science; U.S. Navy Distinguished Public Service Award; Johns Hopkins University Gold Medal; American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology Distinguished Service Award; Central Nervous System Society's President's Award; UCLA Young Investigator Award; American Medical Association's Distinguished Service Award; Phi Beta Kappa National Medical Honor Society; Tau Beta Pi Medical Honor Society; American Psychiatric Association's award for Distinguished Clinical Contributions to Psychoanalysis; honorary Doctorate degrees from UCSD, UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine, Hofstra University, Cleveland State University, Wayne State University, American Psychological Association (APA), New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), and others; elected member of The Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA); elected member of The Society for Neuroscience (SFN).
Neuroscience is by far the most exciting branch of science because the brain is the most fascinating object in the universe. Every human brain is different - the brain makes each human unique and defines who he or she is.Stanley B. Prusiner
Besides numerous science courses, I had the opportunity to study philosophy, the history of architecture, economics, and Russian history in courses taught by extraordinarily knowledgeable professors.Stanley B. Prusiner
