ENHS Nature Trails December 2004 Article 1

This month's speaker: Terry Takahashi

If only one could sustain the guileless dreams of childhood--the fascinations that might have been uncovered, researched and critiqued on the Tuesday route of the faithful garbage collector, an early career choice of this month's speaker, Dr. Terry Takahashi. As time passed, Dr. Takahashi discarded this career possibility for the more desirable pastime of "digging in the dirt"; he would become a paleontologist because one "got paid for digging in the dirt." However, he says, "With maturity and sophistication, I learned that digging in the dirt was a lot of work, so I settled for neuroscience." Not unlike our last month's speaker, I gleaned from Dr. Takahashi's interview that becoming a jazz musician also had its moments of consideration in his formative years but was not a favorite choice of his parents:

"My parents were always supportive of my interest in nature and science. They always replenished my chemical stocks and microscope lenses in exchange for chores. I think they are pleased with my ultimate career choice. Even though I'm not a *real* doctor, they're at least relieved that I didn't become a jazz musician.

Terry's professional path began to acquire definition during a freshman college course in physiological psychology. "Psychology got me interested in the biological basis of the brain and made me change my major from English to Biology. (I could never understand Shakespeare anyway.)" ** He goes on to say, "As an undergraduate, I was in a lab where we dissected a crayfish claw and electrically stimulated the nerves that opened and closed it. The motion of the dissected claw was identical to the motion in an intact crayfish, and it reinforced my growing conviction that the nervous system is a machine that could be understood. Mind comes from matter!"

Along with his freshman physiological psych professor, Terry credits his PhD advisor and his students as influences steering his professional path. "My PhD advisor, Frank Scalia, taught me how to think about data, and my own students, they let me know when I'm wrong (and do so often)."

Of course the English major often finds the professional path undefined and evanescent, but for Terry, his path became clearer as a grad student. "I took the summer course ‘Neural Systems and Behavior' at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratories. There I met Mark Konishi (Caltech), the scholar-in-residence, whose talk got me interested in neural computation."

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO OREGON?
"Great colleagues in the Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Biology, Department of Psychology, and School of Music."

 Dr. Takahashi's academic degrees:
 BS: University of California, Irvine
 PhD: State University of NY Health Science Center, Brooklyn, NY
 Postdoctoral fellow: Caltech, Pasadena, California
A preponderance of Dr. Takahashi's research involves barn owls, always a fascination for those who love natural history, thus, I know we're in for a great talk this Friday night when he tells us "How brain cells are related to perception and how structure is related to function."

And in case you wonder if he has a sense of humor, here's how he answered two of our standard questions:

ANY NATURE HOBBIES?
 Applied ichthyology. (Sometimes called "flyfishing".)

MEMORABLE TRAVELS?
 There have been one or two, but I've forgotten.

His current interests/projects too are fascinating--they might require a return invitation for a not quite so natural history oriented, but increasingly timely lecture.

 According to Terry he is trying "to figure out how we keep track of a single conversation amidst background noise, and how hearing aids might be developed to assist with this process as we (I) get old."

Ed. note: I am thankful that respected scientists find the figurative unsatisfactory, but the fact that Terry even toyed with the idea of becoming an English major suggests he possesses a very important element for a scientist, a creative mind.

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