The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) School of Biological Sciences has awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree to neuroscientist and geneticist Cori Bargmann, Ph.D. She was honored for her work in C. elegans genetics and the neural pathways controlling behavior, including pathogen response and odor recognition, and for her commitment to education. Bargmann is currently the Torsten N. Wiesel Professor and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Rockefeller University.
Bargmann graduated from the University of Georgia and received her Ph.D. from MIT, where she studied the neu/HER2 oncogene with Bob Weinberg. Her work on the neurobiology and genetics of behavior began during a postdoctoral fellowship with Bob Horvitz at MIT. She was a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco (1991-2004) and has been the Torsten N. Wiesel Professor at Rockefeller University since 2004. Her work has addressed the relationships between genes, circuits, and behaviors in C. elegans, including the basis of odor recognition and odor preference, the circuits and neuromodulatory systems that regulate innate behaviors, the genetics of natural behavioral variation, and behavioral responses to pathogens.
Among other honors, she is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine and has received the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. In 2013-2014, she and Bill Newsome co-chaired the advisory group to the NIH Director for President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative. In 2016, she became the first Head of Science at a new philanthropy, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a position she held until 2022.
Written by: Communications Department | publicaffairs@cshl.edu | 516-367-8455