Carl Schoonover is Senior Scientist at The Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics where he studes the biological basis of learning. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Axel Laboratory at Columbia University, he investigated the neural circuitry of behaviors mediated by olfaction. His doctoral work in the Bruno Laboratory at Columbia University focused on microanatomy and electrophysiology of rodent somatosensory cortex. He is the author of Portraits of the Mind and has written for The New York Times, Le Figaro, and Scientific American. In 2007 he co-founded NeuWrite, a collaborative working group for scientists, writers, and those in between. His radio program on WKCR 89.9FM focuses on opera, classical music, and occasionally their relationship to the brain.