Dr. Crair’s research program develops and employs advanced imaging techniques to examine the basic mechanisms that mediate brain circuit plasticity, development and regeneration, with a focus on the mammalian visual system. He has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of neural activity in the developing brain, for instance by demonstrating that early spontaneous neuronal activity is an essential part of normal brain development. He is currently exploring the mechanisms by which this activity is generated and how it shapes brain circuit development. He has been awarded numerous honors for his research and teaching, including the Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Foundation Fellowship Award in the Neurosciences, the Marc Dresden Excellence in Graduate Education Award, and a NARSAD-Sidney R. Baer Jr. Foundation Young Investigator Award. He has also been named an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow, a John Merck Fund Scholar and the March of Dimes Foundation’s Basil O’Connor Fellow. His research is funded by the National Eye Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health.