On Mar. 19, 2004, University of California, San Diego (UCSD) was awarded $7.5 million to establish The Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind which will focus on how genes influence behavior, how brains repair themselves, and the biological underpinnings of memory, learning, consciousness and attention.

UCSD was one of seven institutions to receive awards from the Kavli Foundation, an Oxnard-based philanthropic group established by former industrialist Fred Kavli that supports research in cosmology, the life sciences and nanoscience.