The character arc of Wendy Suzuki
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born in the United States, in a year the public record does not publish. Between then and now sit a bachelor's degree in physiology and human anatomy at Berkeley in 1987, a course called The Brain and its Potential taught by Marian Diamond that opened the door to neuroplasticity, a doctorate in neuroscience at San Diego in 1993 whose thesis won a national prize, five years of postdoctoral work at a national institute, a faculty post at New York University from 1998, a book, and a deanship from September 2022. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Wendy Suzuki?
One undergraduate course, and she never left the subject.
She took her bachelor's degree in physiology and human anatomy at Berkeley in 1987. While she was there she took a course called The Brain and its Potential, taught by Marian Diamond, and went to meet her afterwards. Diamond's work had shown that the brain can change in response to its environment, which was not obvious at the time, and that door, once opened, decided everything.
She went to San Diego for a doctorate in neuroscience, finished in 1993, mentored by three of the most serious memory researchers in the field. Her work uncovered the importance of two particular regions of cortex in preserving long term memories, and her thesis won a national prize in behavioural neuroscience.
She spent five years, from 1993 to 1998, on postdoctoral research at a national institute, working on how the brain remembers where objects are in space. Then in 1998 she joined the faculty of the New York University Center for Neural Science, where she has been ever since.
Her research interests centre on neuroplasticity: how the brain is able to change and adapt over the course of a person's life. She wrote Healthy Brain, Happy Life, a personal programme for activating the brain, and on 1 September 2022 she became Dean of the university's College of Arts and Science, which means running the whole thing rather than just her own laboratory.
The moments
Wendy Suzuki's timeline.
The 1980s
The Brain and its Potential
Milestone, and it changed everything. One course, one teacher, and the whole question arrived at once.
A degree at Berkeley
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Physiology and anatomy, with the real question already chosen.
Medicine, or the question
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: follow the plasticity question, taken, or use the degree as intended. Her doctorate found where long term memories are preserved and won a national prize.
The 1990s
Where memories are kept
Milestone, and it changed everything. She found which parts of the brain hold on to what you remember.
A prize for the thesis
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The national prize for the best thesis in her field that year.
Five years at the institute
Everyday, and it changed her direction. Five years on one question: how you remember where things are.
A laboratory of her own
Milestone, and it changed everything. Her own laboratory, at thirty three, in New York.
The 2000s
The brain that changes
Milestone, and it changed everything. The question she took from one lecture hall, running for thirty years.
The 2010s
Healthy Brain, Happy Life
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The laboratory findings, written so anybody could use them.
The 2020s
Dean of the college
Milestone, and it changed everything. Running the whole college, not just the laboratory.
She runs a college now, and the laboratory is still asking how a brain rebuilds itself. What she set moving is the single most useful idea in the whole field, that the thing in your head is not fixed, carried forward from one Berkeley lecture hall by a student who stayed behind to ask a question.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
Hers turned on one undergraduate course and a conversation with the teacher afterwards. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Wendy Suzuki: frequently asked questions
What people ask about her line.
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Where does this timeline of Wendy Suzuki's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with her.
Sources
- Wendy Suzuki, English Wikipedia biography.
- University of California records for her 1987 degree and 1993 doctorate.
- New York University records for her professorship from 1998 and her deanship from September 2022.
- Her birth date is not in the public record reached, so this page states none.