Dale Purves Papers, 1950-2020, undated

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Summary

Creator:
Purves, Dale
Abstract:
Contains the personal and professional records of Dale Purves, professor of neurobiology, chair of the Department of Neurobiology (1999-2002), and director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University Medical Center. Types of materials include laboratory notebooks, photographs, slides, correspondence, manuscripts, short writings, clippings, committee materials, professional organization materials, memorabilia, grant materials, media files, posters, and emails. Major subjects include neurosciences, neurobiology, and visual perception. Materials range in date from 1950 to 2020.
Extent:
315 Linear Feet (207 cartons, 1 manuscript box, 4 card boxes, 2 flat boxes, 3 map tubes, 5 CDs in AV15/16 Box 1) and 50 GB
Language:
English
Collection ID:
MC.0046

Background

Scope and content:

Contains the personal and professional records of Dale Purves, professor of neurobiology, chair of the Department of Neurobiology (1999-2002), and director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University Medical Center. Types of materials include laboratory notebooks, photographs, slides, correspondence, manuscripts, short writings, clippings, committee materials, professional organization materials, memorabilia, grant materials, media files, posters, and emails. Major subjects include neurosciences, neurobiology, and visual perception. Materials range in date from 1950 to 2020.

Biographical / historical:

Dale Purves, the George Barth Geller Professor for Research in Neurobiology at Duke University, received a BA from Yale (1960) and an MD from Harvard Medical School (1964). He took a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard (1968-1971) and in the Department of Biophysics at University College London (1971-1973).

Purves joined the faculty Washington University in 1971 as a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. He left Washington in 1990 to join the Department of Neurobiology at Duke Medical Center. From 1999 to 2002, he was the chair of the Department of Neurobiology. He became the Director of Duke's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience (2003-2009). From 2009 to 2013 he served as the Director of the Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program at the Duke-NUS Gradate Medical School in Singapore, as well as the executive director of the A*STAR Neuroscience Research Partnership, both in Singapore.

Purves' research focuses on the neurobiological underpinnings of visual perception, including the perception of brightness, color, orientation, motion, and depth.

The Purves laboratory studies visual and auditory perception and the neurobiological underpinnings of perceptual phenomena. Ongoing investigations in vision include understanding the perception of lightness, brightness, color, orientation, motion, and depth; the interest in audition concerns understanding pitch relationships in music, based on the similarity of musical tones and voiced speech. The unifying theme of these projects is the hypothesis that perceptions are generated according to a wholly empirical strategy that presents in consciousness (or in unconscious behavior) the empirical rank of stimuli rather than stimulus features, or the properties of objects in the world. This theory of perception and its relation to brain structure and function is being explored by examining the responses of human subjects, the statistical relation of stimuli and their sources in natural image and sound databases, and the properties of artificial neural networks evolved in simulated environments.

Purves was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989 for his work on neural development and synaptic plasticity. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, Society for Neuroscience, Corporation of the Marine Biological Laboratory, and National Academy of Medicine. He has received numerous awards and honors, as well as authoring numerous books and articles.

Acquisition information:
Accession A2003.075 (transferred, September 2003), Accession A2004.087 (transferred, October 2004), Accession A2005.009 (transferred, February 2005), Accession A2007.004 (gift, January 2007), Accession A2007.022 (gift, February 2007), Accession A2008.005 (gift, January 2008), Accession A2008.016 (gift, February 2008), Accession A2009.002 (gift, January 2009), Accession A2009.050 (gift, September 2009), Accession A2011.040 (gift, May 2011), Accession A2012.032 (gift, April 2012), Accession A2013.043 (gift, July 2013), Accession A2014.003 (transferred by Alison Ung, February 2014), Accession A2015.019 (transferred by Christine Albuquerque, May 2015), Accession A2015.024 (transferred by Alison Ung, June 2015), Accession A2018.029 (transferred by Edward McLaurin III, June 2018), Accession A2019.077 (transferred by Dale Purves, August 2019), Accession A2023.033 (June 2023)
Processing information:

Processed by Archive staff: February 2005; encoded by Emily Glenn: February 2005; updated by Cate Putirskis: March 2007; updated by Matt Shangler: June 2013; updated by Lucy Waldrop: July 2023

Arrangement:
Organized into the following series: Accessions A2003.077 and A2004.087: Correspondence, Research, and Administrative Files, 1971-2003; Accession A2004.087: Correspondence and Manuscript Materials, undated; Accession A2005.009: Papers, Abstracts, Reviews and Correspondence, 1994-2003; Poster and Presentation Materials, 1985-2003; Accession A2007.004: Grant Materials, Manuscript Reviews, and PNAS Records, 1989-2004; Accession A2007.022: Administrative and Teaching Binders and Media Files, 1990-2003; Accession A2009.050: Subject Files, undated; Email, 2007-2013; Articles, Manuscripts, Papers, 1992-2009, undated; General Files, 1972-2009, undated; Grants and Proposals, 2003-2009; IRB Materials, 1995-2009; Reprints, 1970-2008; Collected Reprints, undated; Microscope Slides, undated; Photographs, undated; Publications and Papers, 1997-2002, undated; Plaques and Awards, 1978-2008; Computer Disks, 1997-2002, undated; Miscellaneous Records, 1989-2006; Accession A2015.019, undated; Accession A2018.029: Emails, 2011-2018; Accession A2019.077: Emails, 2018-2019; Accession A2023.033: Subject Files, Photographs, and Digital Storage Devices, 1985-2020. Material within this collection has been organized by accession reflecting the fact that the collection has been acquired in increments over time. Researchers should note that material within each accession overlaps with/or relates to material found in other accessions. In order to locate all relevant material within this collection, researchers will need to consult each accession described in the Series Scope and Contents section. Researchers should also note that similar material can be arranged differently in each accession, depending on how the material was organized when it was received by the DUMCA.
Physical location:
For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Duke University Medical Center Library's online catalog.
Rules or conventions:
DACS

Subjects

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Personal Name(s):
Purves, Dale
Corporate Name(s):
Duke University. Medical Center
Duke University. School of Medicine
Duke University. Department of Neurobiology
Topical Term(s):
Visual Perception.
Neurosciences.
Neurobiology.
Education, Medical.
Faculty.

Contents

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Restrictions:

This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals or IRB approval may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which Duke University assumes no responsibility.
Contains Medical Center Administrative records. These include records of the officers of the University, as defined in the Bylaws, the deans of schools and colleges, and departments, institutes, and other offices as designated by the President. For a period of twenty-five years from the origin of the material, permission in writing from the director of the office of record and the Medical Center Archivist is required for use. After twenty-five years, records that have been processed may be consulted with the permission of the Medical Center Archivist. (Issued by the Office of the Chancellor, December 1, 1975).
Materials in boxes 130-141 and 207-211 must be screened for sensitive or confidential materials before being accessed. For further information consult with the Medical Center Archivist.

Terms of access:

Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Dale Purves Papers, Duke University Medical Center Archives.