Daniel Madison
Madison served as associate chair of the Molecular and Cellular Physiology Department at Stanford Medicine from 2016 until his passing and served as the director of graduate studies for more than 25 years. A member of Bio-X and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Madison researched how brain cell connections change when we create memories and learn, and what occurs when these processes go wrong. Colleagues remember Madison as a lively personality both in and out of the lab. He believed in science as a framework for understanding life and approached it with curiosity, humor and humility. His large, warm presence instantly made people feel comfortable, his family said.
Madison was deeply committed to his students and colleagues, his coworkers said. He fostered a supportive lab environment, mentoring scholars from backgrounds underrepresented in neuroscience. Madison’s research centered on how synapses — the connections between neurons — work and change, a process known as synaptic plasticity. His area of expertise was the hippocampus, which is essential for learning and memory. Madison was also a dedicated educator. He managed a long-standing journal club for graduate students, assisting them in exploring career and research paths. He taught undergraduate and graduate courses such as Neurons and Disease, Molecular Basis of Learning and Memory, Developmental Neurobiology, and a practical minicourse on the hippocampus.
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