Mark Mattson is the former Chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging and is currently an adjunct professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He received his PhD from the University of Iowa and postdoc training at Colorado State University. His research has advanced an understanding of cellular signaling mechanisms that control the formation and plasticity of neuronal networks in the brain, and cellular and molecular mechanisms of brain aging and neurodegenerative disorders.