Institute Proposal through lines 124 12/14/2007
Lines 4-77 have been reviewed by the committee twice and lines 79-127 have been reviewed by the committee once. Please see the “Statement on Proposal Drafting” for comments on how the process proceeded.
Proposal for an Institute
"As long as our brain is a mystery, the universe, the reflection of the structure of the brain, will also be a mystery."
Santiago Ramon y Cajal, [ca. 1898]
The neurosciences study the anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology of nerves and nervous tissue, and especially with relation to behavior and learning. They include fields such as: dynamical systems, neuroanatomy, neuroeconomics, neuroethology, neurology, neuromics, neurophilosophy, neurophysiology, neuropsychology, molecular neurobiology as well as behavioral, cognitive, computational, and developmental neuroscience. The neurosciences are informed by and inform fields such as: biophysics, computer science, education, pharmacology, psychology, psychiatry, robotics, and speech/language pathology. The neurosciences are expanding rapidly. For example, since 1969 the membership of the Society for Neuroscience has increased from 500 to over 37,000 and while there were no neuroscience programs in 1960, over 140 universities now provide training in the neurosciences.
The Neurosciences at Georgia State University
Three years ago, the Brains & Behavior (B&B) Program was created to provide a mechanism for faculty and students interested in the neurosciences to interact through collaborative research, research groups, a distinguished lecture series, and annual retreats. The B&B Program serves approximately seventy faculty members in the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Communication, Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, Educational Psychology and Special Education, Mathematics and Statistics, Philosophy, Physics and Astronomy, Political Science, and Psychology. Over the last three years, the B&B Fellows program has helped these departments recruit first-rate graduate students; 43 B&B Fellows are currently enrolled. During the same period, faculty with interests in neuroscience and behavior have been recruited by the departments of Biology, Mathematics and Statistics, Psychology, Political Science, Philosophy, and Physics and Astronomy.
Georgia State is also the primary site for the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN), a National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center consisting of faculty and students from Atlanta universities and colleges. Focused on social and behavioral neuroscience, the CBN has enabled Georgia State students and faculty to collaborate with students and faculty at Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Atlanta University Center. CBN has also facilitated the recruitment of neuroscience faculty to the departments of Biology and Psychology, and will continue to contribute to the recruiting efforts for those departments.
A Proposal for an Institute at Georgia State University
We propose the formation of an Institute. We now have an opportunity to build on the success of existing programs by creating an interdisciplinary Institute that will propel the neurosciences at Georgia State to a position of leadership in the state and nation. The Institute will provide a disciplinary home for the neurosciences at Georgia State, it will take over the interdisciplinary mission and functions of the Brains & Behavior Program, and it will facilitate the creation of degree programs at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
The Institute will include core, associate and affiliate faculty to capture the range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary activities in the B&B Program. Core faculty will provide the disciplinary focus of the Institute. Associate and affiliate faculty will bring the interdisciplinary richness of their perspectives to the research and educational programs of the Institute and enable them and their students to profit from close interaction with core faculty. Over 50 faculty have already self identified as either core, associate, or affiliate members of a potential institute.
The Institute will provide a focus for interdisciplinary degree programs in the neurosciences that will be attractive to prospective students while retaining the disciplinary richness that currently exists. New Ph.D. and B.S. programs in the neurosciences will be housed in the Institute where they will serve students with interests across the neurosciences.
The Institute will enable Georgia State to achieve leadership among state institutions and national prominence in the neurosciences, an area of increasing national importance. Georgia State faculty in several departments are leaders in many neuroscience subfields, including appetitive behavior and metabolism, aggression, emotion, circadian rhythms, the chemical senses, computational neuroscience, animal communication, neural development, sex differences, neuromics, neurophilosophy, neuropsychology, neurorobotics, neural plasticity, and pain. Georgia State neuroscientists are leaders in science education and community partnerships, and they direct the only NSF Science and Technology Center devoted to the neurosciences, the CBN. The Institute will unite these faculty to create the largest such academic unit among the state research universities and provide the support and infrastructure needed to increase Georgia State’s leadership in the neurosciences.
Name
[A paragraph on the name of the Institute will be inserted here after input from the faculty survey is analyzed.]
Faculty
All initial faculty appointments will be made by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences after a review process that includes the faculty member, the chair of the member’s current department and the Institute Director.
Core faculty will have a disciplinary focus in the neurosciences and a primary appointment in the Institute. They may have a joint appointment in another department of the university. Their promotion-tenure decisions and workload (research, teaching and service) will be reviewed within the Institute. (As is true of the other units of the College of Arts and Sciences, the College workload policy will be followed.) They will occupy laboratory and office space assigned to the Institute. (Like all other units, Institute space might not be contiguous.) Their graduate students will come primarily from the Neuroscience Ph.D. program, but core faculty in the Institute may chair committees in other departments depending on the nature of their individual arrangements with those departments. Most core faculty will have their entire budgetary lines within the Institute, including salary, indirect cost recovery, and any foundation accounts associated with them.
Associate faculty may have a disciplinary focus outside the neurosciences. They will have a strong interest in the neurosciences and a commitment to the goals and activities of the Institute. They will maintain a primary appointment in another department of the university. They may have a joint appointment in the Institute. All their budgetary affairs, promotion and tenure decisions and workload will be determined by their primary department. Associate members have voting rights in the Institute except on promotion and tenure decisions of core faculty. All core faculty search committees will have at least one voting associate member. When other units search for a position envisioned as an associate member of the Institute, the search committee will include at least one core Institute member. Associate members will normally be expected to (a) teach courses on the approved list of electives for the neuroscience degrees and certificate, (b) direct students (e.g., fellows) in the Institute or in their primary department, (c) serve on committees for students in the Institute, and (d) participate significantly in Institute activities. Laboratory and office space of associate members will be in their home department. Associate members will have access to all core equipment of the Institute. An associate member may serve as a PI on a seed grant.
Affiliate faculty will have a disciplinary focus outside the neurosciences. They will have an interest in the neurosciences and in the goals and activities of the Institute. They will have a primary appointment in another department. Affiliate members have voice but not vote in the Institute. Affiliate members have no office/laboratory space in the Institute. Affiliate members may serve as a co-PI on a seed grant, but not as a PI or as chair of a dissertation/thesis committee. Affiliates should be willing to serve on committees of students in the Institute and participate in Institute activities.
Associate and affiliate status will be reviewed by the College of Arts and Sciences as part of the tenure and post-tenure review process.
Lecturers and other continuing non-tenure track faculty in the Institute will have faculty privileges consistent with the College by-laws. Teaching assignments and office space will be assigned by the Institute.
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