Bruce Schnapp grew up in Connecticut. He earned a BS with highest honors from the University of Connecticut, and a PhD, in Neuroscience, also at the University of Connecticut. After performing postdoctoral work in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and at the Institute of Neurology in London, England, Dr. Schnapp joined the NIH in 1983, but maintained his lab off the main NIH campus, at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, to work with the squid giant axon. From 1983-1989, while at the MBL, Dr Schnapp, with a small group of collaborators, discovered cytoplasmic microtubule motors and their fundamental role in intracellular trafficking. Dr. Schnapp continued his work on molecular motors from 1989-91, as Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology at Boston University Medical School. In 1991, Dr. Schnapp moved his laboratory to Harvard Medical School in the Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology (later renamed Department of Cell Biology), where he remained until August 2001. In September, 2001, Dr. Schnapp assumes the position of Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, Oregon, where his laboratory will continue to investigate mechanisms of intracellular transport.