An announcement from HBI co-directors Josh Sanes and Mike Greenberg:

Dear HBI Community,

When HBI was set up, the Provost indicated that it should be co-directed by the Director of the Center for Brain Science (CBS) and the Chair of the Harvard Medical School Neurobiology Department. As many of you may know, Professor Venki Murthy will assume the directorship of CBS on July 1. Accordingly, he will assume the position of co-director for HBI at that time. Venki is a fantastic scientist, a wonderful colleague and a scholar with breadth that ranges from neuronal cell biology and biophysics to systems and computational neuroscience. He is also an experienced leader, having served as Director of the Neurobiology undergraduate program, the Biophysics Graduate Program and, most recently, Chair of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department. And he has great enthusiasm for and experience in teaching, and outreach activities. As we face the challenges of doing science in times that seem to be becoming more difficult every day, we will be fortunate to have Venki’s wisdom, energy and ability to work across organizational barriers.

It has been a tremendous honor for us to work together with you, our steering committee, Associate Provost for Science Kathy Buckley and the rest of the Provost’s Office to launch HBI and serve Harvard’s broad and deep neuroscience community since 2014. We are pleased by the progress we’ve made, and are confident that once we get past the current difficulties, we will continue to grow and thrive.

Mike will continue to serve as co-director and Josh will be available to help with the transition. Please free to reach out to us and to Venki with questions or suggestions as we proceed with this leadership transition.

With hopes that you are staying safe, strong and healthy,
Josh and Mike