In thinking about the students and postdoctoral fellows with whom I have collaborated in my laboratory, I am reminded of the painting workshop of the Renaissance artist Andrea del Verrocchio…filled with a succession of gifted artists, including Leonardo da Vinci…When I give talks, I tell my audience, “This new culture system was developed by Kelsey Martin, this CREB activator and repressor were found by Dusan Bartsch, and these wonderful prion-like molecules at the synapse were discovered by Kausik Si!” (p.418)
Table: Collaborators mentioned in In Search of Memory, with Kandel’s comments.
Walter Gilbert | an extraordinary person, one of the most intelligent, gifted, and versatile biologists of the second half of the twentieth century |
| Dominick Purpura | extremely bright, technically strong, and highly entertaining |
| Angelique Arvantiaki-Chalazonitis | a senior, highly accomplished scientist |
| Irving Kupfermann | a gifted an idiosyncratic behaviorist |
| Vincent Castellucci | a delightful and highly cultivated Canadian scientist…who regularly trounced me in tennis |
| Robert Hawkins | an insightful young psychologist |
| Craig Baily | a talented and creative young cell biologist |
| Paul Greengard | a gifted biologist |
| Steven Siegelbaum | a technically gifted young biophysicist |
| Richard Axel | remarkably interesting, intelligent, and generous |
| Richard Scheller | creative and bold, extraordinary |
| Tom Jessell | the leading scientist working on the development of the vertebrate nervous system |
| Kelsey Martin | an extremely gifted cell biologist |
| Kausik Si | a remarkably original and effective scientist |
| Seth Grant, Mark Mayford | talented postdoctoral fellows |
| Amit Etkin | a bold and creative Ph.D. student |