Shepherd is a John Hopkins University graduate, who is originally from New Zealand. He has made important contributions to understanding the mechanisms underlying long-term synaptic plasticity. He showed that the immediate early gene Arc is important in vesicular trafficking in brain cells, which is important for neural communication.

MIT President L. Rafael Reif (left) leads Prime Minister David Cameron on a lab tour.Photo: Dominick Reuter
British Prime Minister David Cameron visits MIT
Personable robots, advanced prosthetics and entrepreneurship figure prominently in campus visit.