Why do identical twins grow into remarkably different people? Why do forgotten experiences shape our decisions decades later? How do our thoughts and emotions influence physical health?
David Linden explores the remarkable complexity of being human. His work reveals how genes, experience, memory and chance interact to shape every individual differently. In doing so, he challenges long-held assumptions about personality, behaviour, health and even free will.
As a professor in the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Linden has spent more than three decades studying memory, learning and recovery after brain injury. His laboratory has uncovered fundamental insights into how the brain stores information, adapts to change and rewires itself throughout life. Yet his greatest contribution may be making those discoveries meaningful beyond the lab.
David Linden has become one of neuroscience’s most distinctive public voices by tackling questions many scientists overlook. His bestselling books explain why pleasure and addiction share common pathways, how individuality emerges despite shared biology, and why some of medicine’s strangest phenomena deserve serious scientific attention.
His work took on a profound personal dimension in 2021 after he was diagnosed with a rare terminal heart cancer. Rather than retreating from science, Linden turned its lens on his own experience. His acclaimed essay, A Neuroscientist Prepares for Death, explored mortality with honesty, humour and scientific precision. Years beyond his original prognosis, he continues to investigate the biological dialogue between the brain, emotion, the immune system and disease, while remaining firmly guided by evidence.
David Linden’s presentations are as thought-provoking as they are accessible. He combines decades of pioneering neuroscience with exceptional storytelling to challenge conventional thinking about memory, health and human behaviour. Audiences leave with fresh insight into the extraordinary complexity of the brain and a deeper understanding of what makes every person unique.
