Math, Physics and Chemistry: my opinion

I get asked a lot about the types of courses one should take during the undergraduate years in order to become successful as a professional neuroscientist. This is an interesting question because very often the inquiring student mentions such alternatives as biology or psychology as being reasonable approaches. I disagree. From my standpoint, based on both growing up with two neuroscientists as parents, and my own career in academia, the key proficiencies need to be in the afore mentioned fields: mathematics, physics and chemistry. Master a base of knowledge from these fields, and you’ll be well positioned to pick up the rest (psychology, biology etc.). I’m not sure the reverse is true. The important point is that the knowledge embedded in math, physics and chemistry is absolutely essential to the ability to fully understand much of the keystone work coming out in neuroscience today. That doesn’t mean one can’t glean the basic ideas and current theories without (in contrast to say quantum mechanics), but to understand in depth, these quantitative and foundational knowledge areas are required.