Modern neuroscience began in 1962 when Dr. Francis O. Schmitt proposed an interdisciplinary, inter-university organization, the Neuroscience Research Program, devoted to studying the structure and function of the nervous system. The program was based on the idea that no single discipline has sufficient technological or conceptual breadth to understand mental activity at its many levels of complexity. Instead, a cross-disciplinary approach is required making the most of the latest principles and methods within the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, mathematics, computer science, materials science, and mechanical and electrical engineering. This cross-disciplinary approach enables the understanding of how complex neural structures give rise to the information processing underlying cognition. Over the past four decades, neuroscience research has matured to become one of the great frontiers of science. In 1980, the National Yang Ming University Institute of Neuroscience was founded as the first center for neuroscience research in Taiwan. After nearly 40 years of development, this institute remains at the forefront of neuroscience research and teaching in Taiwan and is the most comprehensive neuroscience research center in Taiwan’s higher education system. The scope of research and teaching spans from molecules to cognition, from the central nervous system to the periphery, tying basic science to medicine.