Laureate Lecture Series

Leslie B. Vosshall, PhD, the Robin Chemers Neustein Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at the Rockefeller University and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, will be the first speaker in the 2015 Senior Vice Chancellor’s Laureate Lecture Series, a yearlong program highlighting some of the top biomedical researchers in their fields. Dr. Vosshall’s lecture, “The Genetic Basis of Innate Behaviors,” will take place at noon on Tuesday, May 12, in Lecture Room 6, Scaife Hall.

A neurobiologist, Dr. Vosshall’s long-term goal is to understand how behaviors emerge from the integration of sensory input with internal physiological states. The Vosshall lab has used the fly Drosophila melanogaster to elucidate the basic mechanisms of olfaction in insects, as well as to study how fly brain circuitry processes odor information. Related work in humans has used olfactory psychophysics in combination with genetic analysis to identify the first case of a genetic polymorphism correlating with a specific change in odor perception.

Dr. Vosshall has recently expanded the focus of the group into mosquito biology in an effort to study what sensory cues guide human host-seeking behavior and what internal signals modulate blood-feeding. The Vosshall lab has been studying the mechanisms of action of insect repellents and has used a target-based approach to develop new candidate insect repellents that have the potential to provide solutions to the public health problems caused by mosquitoes.

Dr. Vosshall received an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Columbia University and a PhD from the Rockefeller University. She conducted postdoctoral training with the Nobel Laureate Richard Axel at Columbia and joined the Rockefeller faculty in 2000. She was named an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2008 and is a past recipient of awards from the John Merck, Beckman, and McKnight Foundations. She is the recipient of a 2002 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a 2005 New York City Mayor’s Young Investigator Award for Excellence in Science and Technology, a 2007 Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, the 2008 Lawrence C. Katz Prize from Duke University, the 2010 Dart/NYU Biotechnology Award, and the 2011 Gill Young Investigator Award.

Dr. Vosshall currently serves on the editorial boards of the journals PLoS Biology and Current Biology, and she reviews manuscripts for Cell, Nature, Science, PNAS, and other journals. She was previously associate editor of the Journal of Neuroscience and the FASEB Journal. She performs grant and peer review for HHMI, the Institute of Molecular Pathology, the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, the McKnight Scholar Award, the Sloan Research Fellowships in Neuroscience, and others.

		Leslie B. Vosshall, PhD Robin Chemers Neustein Professor, The Rockefeller University Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Genetic Basis of Innate Behaviors Tuesday, May 12, 12 noon Scaife Hall, Lecture Room 6 Leslie B. Vosshall, PhD, the Robin Chemers Neustein Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at the Rockefeller University and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, will be the first speaker in the 2015 Senior Vice Chancellor’s Laureate Lecture Series, a yearlong program highlighting some of the top biomedical researchers in their fields. Dr. Vosshall’s lecture, “The Genetic Basis of Innate Behaviors,” will take place at noon on Tuesday, May 12, in Lecture Room 6, Scaife Hall. A neurobiologist, Dr. Vosshall’s long-term goal is to understand how behaviors emerge from the integration of sensory input with internal physiological states. The Vosshall lab has used the fly Drosophila melanogaster to elucidate the basic mechanisms of olfaction in insects, as well as to study how fly brain circuitry processes odor information. Related work in humans has used olfactory psychophysics in combination with genetic analysis to identify the first case of a genetic polymorphism correlating with a specific change in odor perception. Dr. Vosshall has recently expanded the focus of the group into mosquito biology in an effort to study what sensory cues guide human host-seeking behavior and what internal signals modulate blood-feeding. The Vosshall lab has been studying the mechanisms of action of insect repellents and has used a target-based approach to develop new candidate insect repellents that have the potential to provide solutions to the public health problems caused by mosquitoes. Dr. Vosshall received an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Columbia University and a PhD from the Rockefeller University. She conducted postdoctoral training with the Nobel Laureate Richard Axel at Columbia and joined the Rockefeller faculty in 2000. She was named an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2008 and is a past recipient of awards from the John Merck, Beckman, and McKnight Foundations. She is the recipient of a 2002 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a 2005 New York City Mayor’s Young Investigator Award for Excellence in Science and Technology, a 2007 Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, the 2008 Lawrence C. Katz Prize from Duke University, the 2010 Dart/NYU Biotechnology Award, and the 2011 Gill Young Investigator Award. Dr. Vosshall currently serves on the editorial boards of the journals PLoS Biology and Current Biology, and she reviews manuscripts for Cell, Nature, Science, PNAS, and other journals. She was previously associate editor of the Journal of Neuroscience and the FASEB Journal. She performs grant and peer review for HHMI, the Institute of Molecular Pathology, the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise, the McKnight Scholar Award, the Sloan Research Fellowships in Neuroscience, and others.