The Neuroscience Graduate Student Association held its 4th Annual Invited Speaker Lecture on Thursday, May 8, 2014 at 4pm in Butler Auditorium, 150 Farber Hall. The Association invited Dr. R. Douglas Fields, Chief of Nervous System Development and Plasticity Section, National Institute of Child Health and Development, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Fields met with graduate students for an informal lunch before giving his talk about activity-dependent plasticity and development, and he later joined the graduate students for dinner at Black Rock Restaurant. Dr. Fields has made a career of being an interdisciplinary neuroscientist with the National Institutes of Health, yet writes science books and articles for the general audience in his spare time. With the graduate students, he contrasted his experiences working in university and government and discussed how he made his way to success in work and in life.