Stephen G. Lisberger, PhD, professor of Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, has accepted Dean Nancy Andrews's offer to become chairman of the Duke Department of Neurobiology.
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From: Nancy Andrews, M.D., Ph.D.
Dean, Duke University School of Medicine
Subject: Appointment of New Chair of Neurobiology
I am delighted to share with you the news that Stephen G. Lisberger, Ph.D., has accepted our offer to become Chairman of the Department of Neurobiology. While Steve will be on campus part time beginning September 1, his official start date is January 1, 2012.
This was a significant position to fill as Neurosciences is an important priority for the School. We had many strong candidates from which to choose, but ultimately, the search committee, led by Tony Means, selected Steve because he is a world class scientist with considerable administrative experience. He is also a mature innovator who thinks broadly about neuroscience. As Tony put it so succinctly, “he is a major catch for Duke.”
Steve is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a Professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also the founding director of the highly successful and respected W.M. Keck Foundation Center for Theoretical Neurobiology, and a co-director of the Sloan-Swartz Center for Theoretical Neurobiology. He has spent the past 15 years analyzing the neural mechanisms that transform visual motion signals into commands for smooth pursuit eye movements.
Steve received his B.A. at Cornell, and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Physics at the University of Washington where he worked in the Primate Center with Dr. Albert Fuchs. He completed his postdoctoral work with Dr. Fred Miles at the NIH before joining UCSF in 1981.
He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and received the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience, as well as the McKnight Investigator award and McKnight Scholar award. He spent 11 years as a section editor and senior editor for The Journal of Neuroscience, and has been the Chief Editor of Neuroscience since early 2010.
I want to extend my warm thanks to Jim McNamara for his significant contributions as Chair of Neurobiology, and to Tony Means for leading this search committee.
I hope you will all join me in welcoming Steve to Duke when he arrives.
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