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Home > Outreach > Vanvleck > 1998

Charles F. Stevens, the twenty-third Van Vleck Lecturer, is Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Investigator and Professor at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego California. Dr. Stevens, a biophysicist, performs studies on neurobiology focusing on molecular biology of synapses Ñ the points at which information flows from one nerve cell to the next. He is also interested in studying how the brain registers and processes information . His many contributions to science have been recognized by members of the scientific community as evidenced by his being elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1982. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Stevens received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1956, his M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine in 1960 and his Ph.D. degree from Rockefeller University in 1964. His academic career began at the University of Washington, Department of Physiology and Biophysics in 1963. Stevens spent a sabbatical year (1969-70) as a Guest Investigator at the Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands. He remained on the University of Washington faculty for twelve years until 1975 when he accepted a position of Professor of Physiology at Yale University School of Medicine. He was at Yale from 1975-90 and held the position of Professor and Chairman of the Section of Molecular Neurobiology, 1983-90. While at Yale, Stevens made fundamental contributions to the understanding of how tiny channels open in cell membranes to admit carefully- regulated flows of ions, leading to the electrical impulses that underlie activity in the nervous system. Stevens was named Salk Institute Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in 1986 while still at Yale. In 1990 he left Yale for the Salk Institute to assume the position of Professor of Molecular Neurobiology. At the Salk Institute, Dr. Stevens continued his studies on the nervous system to improve our understanding of how information is stored.

Dr. Stevens has written over 150 books and papers which have appeared in publications such as "Nature", "Neuroscience Letters", "Journal of Neurophysiology," "Current Biology", and "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences". He received the Spencer Award from Columbia University in 1979 and the Grass National Lecturer Award from the Society for Neuroscience in 1981.