David Eagleman
David Eagleman is a neuroscientist, author and host of Inner Cosmos, exploring how the brain shapes perception, memory, creativity and everyday life.
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David’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus his backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
Overview
- From
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Education
- Literature at Rice University; neuroscience PhD at Baylor College of Medicine in 1998
- Work
- Neuroscientist, author and podcast host
- Breakout books
- Sum (2009) and Incognito (2011)
- Research interests
- Brain plasticity, sensory substitution, time perception, synesthesia and neurolaw
Mini bio
How it started.
A childhood fall from a roof left Eagleman wondering why a moment of danger could feel so long. Literature was his first love at Rice University, but in his final undergraduate semester he found neuroscience. He earned his PhD at Baylor College of Medicine in 1998 and later did postdoctoral research at the Salk Institute.
From the lab to the bookshelf.
His fiction collection Sum imagined different afterlives in 2009 and became an international bestseller. Incognito followed in 2011, inviting readers to explore the brain’s hidden activity. His writing keeps returning to questions fans can recognize in their own lives: who we are, what we notice and how we change.
Science on screen and in your headphones.
He wrote and presented the six-part PBS series The Brain with David Eagleman, which aired in 2015. Livewired explores the brain’s capacity to reshape itself, while The Runaway Species, written with composer Anthony Brandt, looks at creativity. Today, Inner Cosmos brings his questions about perception, behavior and identity to a regular podcast audience.
Ideas you can use.
Alongside his public work, Eagleman teaches neuroscience at Stanford and directs the nonprofit Center for Science and Law. He has also co-founded neurotechnology companies including BrainCheck and Neosensory, taking questions about the brain into tools and projects outside the laboratory.
Creditschronological, newest first
Books
- 2020Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing BrainAuthor
- 2017The Runaway SpeciesCo-author with Anthony Brandt
- 2011Incognito: The Secret Lives of the BrainAuthor
- 2009Sum: Forty Tales from the AfterlivesAuthor
Television
- 2015The Brain with David EaglemanWriter and presenter
Awards
Quotes
It’s machinery that reconfigures itself, that adjusts and adapts to whatever’s going on around it to optimize its function.David Eagleman, introduction to Livewired on his official website
He uses “liveware” to describe the brain’s ability to change its own structure.
Trivia
- He calls his way of moving among projects the “lazy Susan method”: when one slows down, he turns to another and returns refreshed.
- As a young postdoctoral researcher, he worked with Francis Crick at the Salk Institute.
- His fiction collection Sum has been adapted into two operas.
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