Master Strategist
Dorothee Kern
Professor of Biochemistry andHoward Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Ph.D., Martin Luther University
“I always loved science as a kid,” says biophysicist Dorothee Kern. “Growing up in communist East Germany also meant that social sciences were heavily influenced and manipulated by the government, while hard science was much more pure and objective. I hated memorizing stuff — I always wanted to derive the answers.”
The former professional basketball player for both the East German and the United German teams is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator whose groundbreaking work in protein dynamics using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy has nourished a whole new field of inquiry and is advancing drug design.
A master strategist in the lab and on the court, Kern is researching proteins associated with HIV, cancer and Alzheimer’s. “I can’t stop asking how and why—I just want to know all the details, down to what the last atom is doing,” says Kern.
Backyard Biologizer
Dan L. Perlman
Associate Professor of BiologyPh.D., Harvard University
Raising awareness of the delicate, complex balancing act between managing human impact and protecting natural habitat lies at the heart of Dan Perlman’s teaching and fieldwork, whether it takes place in Massachusetts or Madagascar.
Chair of the environmental studies program, Perlman is dedicated to “biologizing” in one’s own backyard.
He co-created a novel semester-long program that immerses students in exploring, and even solving, local environmental problems, from land development issues to water pollution and sustainable farming. The only program of its kind in the nation, Brandeis’ environmental field semester explores experiential learning, cross-disciplinary study and rigorous intellectual inquiry and debate, combining them with team problem solving, adventure, and countless bonding opportunities.
Perlman says the excitement and the intensity of the field semester “are similar to a study-abroad program but with all the benefits and resources of being based here at the university.”
Portrait of the mammal as a young learner
Gina Turrigiano
Professor of Biology
Ph.D., University of California, San Diego
“Mammals including humans have extended ‘childhoods’ during which they learn about the world and how to navigate within it,” says MacArthur “genius” award-winner Gina Turrigiano. “For many of these developmental learning processes, such as learning to speak and being able to interpret sensory input, young mammals must interact with the world during limited ‘sensitive periods’ of development or else they will never gain these skills.”
The big question in her lab: why are these forms of learning confined to particular developmental-sensitive periods in life? It’s the kind of question her students explore, as well, particularly in a small neuroscience class open to juniors and seniors. “In that class,” she says, “we read papers from the primary scientific literature and discuss them in a seminar format. The discussions are always lively, and I end up learning as much as I teach. Several times I have run into former students in airports or at meetings who tell me how important this class was for them and how big an impact it had on their lives.”