One day in 1996, neuroscientist Eric Kandel, codirector of the Zuckerman Institute, took a call from his program officer at the National Institute of Mental Health, who informed him that he had been awarded a key grant. Also, the officer said, he and his colleagues thought Kandel would win the Nobel Prize.

I hope not soon, Kandels wife, Denise, a professor of sociomedical sciences in psychiatry at theMailman School of Public Health, said when she heard this. Sociologists had found that Nobel Prize winners often did not contribute much more to science after getting their awards, she explained.

In his new book, There Is Life After the Nobel Prize, Kandel recounts his remarkable career since receiving the Nobel in 2000or his experience of proving to his wife that he was not yet completely dead intellectually. He takes readers through his labs scientific advances, including research into how long-term memory is stored in the brain, the nature of age-related memory loss, and the neuroscience of drug addiction and schizophrenia.

Kandel discusses the book with Columbia News, along with what hes reading now and which art exhibitions hes been able to visit during the pandemic.

Q. What inspired you to write this book?

A. I wrote the book because there is a belief among many people, including sociologists of science, that once you win the Nobel Prize, you are so busy celebrating the award that you have a difficult time doing anything further creative in science. I found that this is not quite true; I was still able to be a creative scientist. Writing this book helped me to demonstrate that.

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Is There Life After Winning a Nobel Prize? - Columbia University