On December 3 to 5, 2012, Prof. Fred H. Gage from The the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, U.S.A., recipient of the 2012 Einstein Professorship of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, visited ION. 

　　Prof. Fred H. Gage is a world known neurobiologist. Through a series of experiments he and his collaborators have had a major impact at the interface of the fields of neurobiology and stem cell biology.

　　During his visit, Prof. Gage visited several ION laboratories and talked with faculty members, as well as some post-doctoral fellows and Ph.D. students. He gave thoughtful suggestions and comments on many research projects. On December 4 and 5, he gave two lectures entitled：“Neuronal Plasticity and Neural Diversity” and “Modeling Human NeuroPsychiatric Disease in a Dish”, hosted by Prof. Mu-Ming Poo, the director of ION. More than 300 researchers listened toattended Prof. Gage’s lectures.

　　The Albert Einstein Visiting Professorship of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is designed to enhance the development of its leading scientists, raise the innovation abilities of its staff and strengthen their contacts and exchanges with scientific elites around the world. The program aims to invite 20 world-class scientists each year to visit CAS for up to two weeks. Those eligible for the program include laureates or potential laureates of the Noble Prize for Natural Sciences and winners of similar honors, such as the Fields Medal in Mathematics, the Wolf Prize in Mathematics, The Turing Award in Computer Science and the Tyler Prize in Environmental Science, and those who have made special contributions to a particular field.