Gerald Edelman

Gerald Maurice Edelman ( born July 1, 1929 in New York, USA) is an American physician and molecular biologist ( immunology, neuroscience ).

In 1972 he, together with Rodney R. Porter the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries concerning the chemical structure of antibodies.

Edelman studied at Ursinus College (Bachelor 1950) and the University of Pennsylvania (MD 1954), was in 1954/55 at Massachusetts General Hospital ( House Officer ), was from 1955 to 1957 Captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and was founded in 1960 at the Rockefeller Institute ( where he was from 1957 a student of Henry G. Kunkel ) a doctorate in biochemistry. He then remained at Rockefeller University, where he 1963-1966 Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and 1966 was professor was (from 1978 Vincent Astor Professor. 1991 he became head of the Department of Neurobiology at the Scripps Research Institute. He is the founder (1981 ) and Director the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla.

In addition to his research on immunology created Edelman, who from about 1972 turned to neuroscience, theories of human consciousness and the so-called Neural Group Selection Theory, describes the development processes in the brain.

In several books he has developed ideas of mind and consciousness according to which are to be regarded as highly complex processes within the brain, and both can be seen as entirely material and purely biological phenomena. The development of mind and consciousness are in his theory within the ideas of Darwin's natural selection and development of populations understandable and writable. Dualistic ideas and hypotheses, according to which the functions of the brain are similar to the operations of a computer, he refuses.

He is a multiple honorary doctorates (including Siena, Paris, Naples, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University) and member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1988 he was awarded the C. and O. Vogt Award from the University Dusseldorf and the 1965 Eli Lilly Award.

List of Works

  • Neural Darwinism: The Theory of Neuronal Group Selection. Basic Books 1987
  • Topobiology: An Introduction to Molecular Embryology. Basic Books 1993
  • Our brain is a dynamic system. Piper 1993
  • Divine air, destructive fire. Piper 1995
  • Brain and mind. How is matter of consciousness. C.H.Beck, 2002, ISBN 3-406-48836-6
  • The light of the Spirit. Walter -Verlag 2004, ISBN 3-530-42182-0
Henry Kunkel Charles Darwin Dualism Hypothesis Integrated Authority File
259252
de