Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne received a B.Sc. in Physics from McGill University, and a B.A. in Philosophy and Physiology from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physiology in from University College London, and performed postdoctoral work at the MRC Developmental Neurobiology Unit in London and at Columbia University, where he was a Markey Scholar. From 1991 to 2001 he was on the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, and from 2001-2003 he served as the Susan B. Ford Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. He was also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1994 to 2003. In 2003, he joined Genentech, Inc. as Senior Vice President, Research Drug Discovery, taking a leave of absence from his Stanford position. Tessier-Lavigne is the recipient or co-recipient of a number of awards, including the Young Investigator Award of the Society for Neuroscience (USA), the Charles Judson Herrick Award of the American Association of Anatomists, the Ameritec Prize for contributions towards a cure for paralysis, the Fondation Ibsen Prize in Neuronal Plasticity, the Viktor Hamburger Award of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience, and the Wakeman Award for regeneration research. Dr. Tessier-Lavigne has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (London), a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (London), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Marc Tessier-Lavigne is a world leader in the study of brain development and regeneration. He has pioneered the identification of the molecules that direct the formation of connections among nerve cells to establish neuronal circuits in the mammalian brain and spinal cord. The mechanisms he has identified are important for understanding how the human brain forms during normal development, and provide essential tools to assist regeneration of nerve connections following trauma or injury.