Menahem SegalI was born on August 11, 1944, towards the end of WWII. My early life memories include running for a shelter to the sound of the sirens, as the Egyptians were bombing Tel Aviv, during the war of 1948. I grew up in Israel, went to school at a local unversity, and was one of the earliest students to combine Experimental Psychology and Biology. After graduating with a MS degree, I realized that Neuroscience education was non-existent at the time in Israel, and decided to obtain it in the US. I was fortunate to be accepted to graduate studies at Cal Tech, under the supervision of the late Jim Olds, an amazing educational and personal experience. From there I went for a Postdoc position with Floyd Bloom, then at the NIMH. These were the early days of Neuroscience, quite exciting, indeed. This was a transition period from the old paper electrophysiology, with EPSP counts on a Grass camera, to the modern world, and personal computers were about to be invented. My next critical decision was in 1974, to go back to Israel and take a position at the Weizmann Institute, where I have been working since. I could have done better, I could have done worse, but I like what I am doing, studying plasticity in cultured neurons and brain slices, combining electrophysiology and imaging of living dendritic spines. It is fun. Read More Read Less