As Nature Neuroscience celebrates its 25th anniversary, we are having conversations with both established leaders in the field and those earlier in their careers to discuss how the field has evolved and where it is heading. This month we are talking to Kelsey Martin, Executive Vice President of Autism and Neuroscience at the Simons Foundation and Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she previously served as the Dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine. We discussed the pleasures of studying neuronal cell biology and her leadership roles.

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