Ken studies the brains and sensory systems of unusual mammals including star-nosed moles, water shrews, and naked mole-rats. While an undergraduate at the University of Maryland in College Park, he worked at the National Zoo in Washington and later earned his PhD in Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego. Ken did his post-doc with Jon Kaas in the Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt University before taking a faculty position at the University in the Department of Biological Sciences. Ken was a 2001 Searle Scholar, received the Capranica award in Neuroethology, the Herrick award in neuroanatomy, and most recently a 2006 MacArthur award. Session 4