Carla Shatz is the Sapp Family Provostial Professor, David Starr Jordan Director of Stanford Bio-X and professor of biology and of neurobiology. She conducts research on how experiences change brain circuits during early critical periods of learning and development. Her work revealed that long before birth, the baby's brain is testing and validating neural circuits. Shatz's research has also revealed new and unexpected connections between the nervous and the immune systems. Shatz has served as president of the Society for Neuroscience, and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the American Philosophical Society. She has received numerous honors and awards, and was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society of London for improving natural knowledge.
