Michael Hasselmo facts for kids

Michael Hasselmo is an American brain scientist and a professor at Boston University. He leads the Center for Systems Neuroscience. He also helps run a science journal called Hippocampus.

Dr. Hasselmo studies how our brains remember things and find our way around. He looks at brain waves and special chemicals that control brain activity. He uses experiments and computer models to understand this. He wrote a book called How We Remember: Brain Mechanisms of Episodic Memory.

Early Life and School

Michael Hasselmo grew up in Golden Valley, Minnesota. His father, Nils Hasselmo, was a professor and later led the University of Minnesota.

Michael Hasselmo went to Harvard University and graduated in 1984. He studied how the brain affects behavior. Later, he earned his DPhil (a type of advanced degree) from the University of Oxford in 1988. His research there looked at how the brain processes faces.

Dr. Hasselmo is married to Professor Chantal Stern. They have two children.

Brain Research and Career

From 1988 to 1991, Dr. Hasselmo worked at the California Institute of Technology. He studied how different parts of the brain's outer layer work.

After that, he became a professor at Harvard University. He studied how a brain chemical called acetylcholine affects how brain cells talk to each other. He showed that acetylcholine helps the brain learn new information.

Dr. Hasselmo is well-known for his work on brain chemicals. He also uses computer models to understand parts of the brain like the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. He especially studies the role of theta rhythm, which are special brain waves.

Current Research at Boston University

Today, Dr. Hasselmo leads the Center for Systems Neuroscience at Boston University. His team studies different parts of the brain involved in memory and navigation.

They look at cells that help us know where we are, like grid cells and head direction cells. They also study place cells, which become active when we are in a specific place.

His lab also uses computer models to understand how brain waves help us remember things. This builds on his earlier work about how acetylcholine helps the brain learn and store memories.

Many of his former students have become successful professors themselves.

Awards and Recognitions

Dr. Hasselmo has been on the editorial boards of several science journals. These include Hippocampus, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, and Behavioral Neuroscience. He was also on the board for Science journal.

Before going to Oxford, he received a Rhodes Scholarship. This is a very special award for students to study at Oxford. In 2003, he was the president of the International Neural Network Society.

Dr. Hasselmo was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018. He also became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011. He received the Hebb Award for his achievements in understanding how the brain learns. He was also named a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor.