15 years ago I spent a year
in Shlomo's lab, as an MSC student. I didn't have any research experience in
psychology or neuroscience. In fact I was just a physics/chemistry student who
happened to read Oliver Sacks' 'The man who mistook his wife for a hat' and
decided that the brain is probably more interesting than molecules.
In retrospect, it is a
wonder how easy it was to join the lab with such limited background. But Shlomo
had patience for anyone willing to learn and was committed to helping students
who started in other disciplines get into cognitive neuroscience. This was also
the spirit of the Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation (ICNC; Shlomo
was of the founders).
Of course he was always busy
and travelled a lot and managed to stay in touch even when he was away; we
probably talked more often when he spent a couple of months in Leipzig - this
was over e-mail before skype existed....
Shlomo's lab was already a
little empire back then in many respects. I may not have realised until years
later how privileged I was to be a part of this world-class lab. Indeed, the
highly prestigious 'Israel Prize' he got earlier this year came as no surprise
(the only question was the timing).
During the year I spent in
the lab, Shlomo organised two international conferences (ESCoP and a smaller
neuropsychology conference) where I first had a chance to meet some world
leaders in cognitive neuroscience and face perception in particular (I was very
excited when he led Vicky Bruce to my first poster, a study of the N170). That
year was my gateway to the world stage and I'm grateful to Shlomo for this.
This was indeed quite an extraordinary year with an extraordinary mentor.
At the end of the year I
headed to Berkeley to pursue my PhD. By the time Shlomo started visiting
Berkeley regularly, I had already left and moved to London. It's a shame I
didn't get a chance to see him more often since.
Shlomo's untimely death is a
great loss. My thoughts are with the family, friends and colleagues in
Jerusalem, Berkeley, and around the world.
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