Topic: David Linde

David J. Linden is an American professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and the author of The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God,. The book The Accidental Mind is an attempt to explain the human brain to intelligent lay readers, and recently received a silver medal in the category of Science from The Independent Publisher Association As of July 1, 2008, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neurophysiology.

In addition to Linden's academic research, he is known as a popularizer of brain science, often making biochemistry understandable to non-science majors in his numerous appearances on the radio and on college campuses.

Most of Linden's undergraduate work was performed at University of California, Berkeley; his graduate work took place at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He also worked briefly at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., in Nutley, New Jersey after receiving his doctorate. The aspect of his work that appeals to "lay people" is becoming popular, which has led to appearances around the country in which he discusses quirky facts about brain chemistry, and spends time being interviewed about neuroscience. At a recent talk for freshmen at a liberal arts college, he proclaimed that "I had no idea my book would become required reading for 500 freshmen. I'm so sorry; I feel like those guys who worked on the Manhattan Project."