After leaving Harvard, it was a wonderful 10 years, my second time, as chairman of neurobiology. It's not too modest to say, because I think other people say it, we rejuvenated the department of neurobiology. I came back to Boston, my labs were not ready at the medical school, so I moved down to MGH, Mass General Hospital, to a new research facility across the river.

I spent a year and a half there in wonderful lab facilities, alongside Steve Hyman and other neuroscientists. But because I formed ties at MGH, as well as at Harvard, I woke everybody up to the fact that there's excellent science in the hospitals. The department was not serving the best interest of science by being so exclusive and narrow and people were just not welcomed at department seminars, and certainly no one was hired. When I did some research, I realized that department, which I just agreed to chair, had made one appointment, promotion to tenure, in 26 years.

The original core of six faculty remained. Well, Steve Kuffler passed away, but the original core remained very close-knit. But we made appointments from the hospitals. We recruited nine people in the 10 years I was there and eight of them were promoted to tenure, so that was a real change in the department. We formed ties, not just with MGH, but with Children's Hospital, the Brigham and the [Dana-Farber] Cancer Center. It was a huge revolution and I enjoyed that enormously, the people I met in the hospitals and the work that they did. Many of them are still there.

The department's reputation grew and grew, and right now it's still one of the best places in the world. But there's a visible force that's driving things apart, there's a new research building in Cambridge and there's a new research building in Allsten. And there's neuroscience there, but it's drawing away from the main campus in Boston. And I find that sad a little bit, but I'm not there, maybe it will work well.

I'm thinking, now that my time at Simons is coming to an end, of traveling up to Boston from time to time, staying overnight. I've been invited to come back for certain events. Maybe rejuvenate connections at MIT and Harvard.