Home page image of brightly colored neurons
Lindsay Pascal, graduate researcher in the Neuroscience and Public Policy Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, uses a fluorescence microscope to view a slide of coronal rat brain slices in the lab of Brian Baldo, an assistant professor of psychiatry, at University Research Park.
Postdoctoral student Yan Liu places stem-cell cultures in a temperature-controlled cabinet in Su-Chun Zhang's research lab

Message from the Chair

Elizabeth "Betsy" QuinlanWelcome to the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Neuroscience has a longstanding tradition of excellence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Our faculty are experts in cellular, molecular, and systems neuroscience, performing basic research extending from gene expression to system functions.

Research focus areas including ion channels, signal transduction, chromatin biology, synaptic transmission and plasticity, neural development and circuit formation, degeneration and regeneration, sensory and motor processing, circuit functions, perception and sensorimotor integration, neural computation and theory, and human evolution.

The department’s foundation in basic sciences informs translational research addressing grand challenges in neurodevelopmental disorders and aging, diseases of excitability including epilepsy and cardiac arrhythmia, and cognitive and sensorimotor dysfunction.

The Department offers a stimulating, collaborative, and inclusive environment for research, training, and education.

Elizabeth Quinlan, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Neuroscience
Herman and Rubinstein Chair of Neuroscience