Darcy Kelley is an HHMI Professor and the Harold Weintraub Chair of Biological Sciences. The research of her laboratory focuses on the neurobiology and evolution of vocal communication. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Kelley founded the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior with John Koester, and has served as co-director of the program from its inception. She directs the graduate Developmental and Systems Neuroscience Course and co-directs Experimental Approaches in the Neural Sciences. With science colleagues at Columbia, she developed a new undergraduate core course for all entering College students, Frontiers of Science. From 1985-1989, Dr. Kelley was Director of the Neural Systems and Behavior course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. Dr. Kelley has been a member of the HHMI predoctoral review committee and a member of the NST and NIH Roadmap study sections (NIH).
Ai Yamamoto is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Pathology and Cell Biology. Dr. Yamamoto became faculty in 2008, after completing her postdoctoral work with Dr. James E. Rothman, and her dissertation work with Dr. Rene Hen. Dr. Yamamoto’s work focuses on the cellular events that impact neurological disorders, with a particular focus on how the cellular pathway autophagy impacts the developing and aging brain. Dr. Yamamoto has co-directed and continues to teach for BCMBII (Lectures on Autophagy), and co-directs with Dr. Hemali Phatnani a course on Management Skills and Leadership in Science. Dr. Yamamoto serves as a member of the MSTP Advisory Committee at Columbia University, as well as on several scientific boards including the Hereditary Disease Foundation and the Project ALS. She has served on several NIH study sections, and is currently a permanent member of Cellular Dysfunction in Neurodegeneration (CDIN). She has been a co-director of the Neurobiology and Behavior Graduate program since 2018.
Ken Miller is Professor of Neuroscience and a member of the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics. He was on the faculty at UCSF for 11 years before moving to Columbia in 2004, where he co-founded Columbia's Center for Theoretical Neuroscience. Dr. Miller is a leading modeler of the primary visual cortex (V1), long one of the key model systems for understanding the function, circuitry, and development of the cerebral cortex, and works more generally on sensory cortical systems. His research focuses on understanding the circuitry underlying functional response properties in sensory cortex, the learning mechanisms underlying the development and plasticity of this circuitry, and the computations these circuits and mechanisms perform. Dr. Miller teaches Theoretical Neuroscience, Advanced Topics in Theoretical Neuroscience, and Responsible Conduct in Research/Policy, and is on the advisory board of the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Göttingen, Germany.
Wes Grueber is Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics and Neuroscience. Dr. Grueber performed postdoctoral research at UCSF. His work has contributed molecular insights into dendritic development including how processes from the same cell recognize each other as ‘self’ during development, a phenomenon termed self-avoidance that is essential for proper assembly of neural circuits. Together with students and collaborators his research focuses on dissecting the signals that regulate dendritic and axonal patterning, and on the organization and function of neural circuits that underlie responses to somatosensory stimuli. Dr. Grueber co-directs Intro to Neural Development and Experimental Approaches in the Neural Sciences. He is PI of the Neurobiology and Behavior Training Grant, an NIH-funded postbaccalaureate program called CADRE, and an NIH-supported summer program for students from underrepresented backgrounds (SPURS). He is a member of the MD/PhD advisory committee and has been a standing member of the Neurodifferentiation, Plasticity, and Regeneration (NDPR) study section (NIH), as well as a reviewer for the NIH NRSA individual fellowships. He has been a co-director of the Neurobiology and Behavior Program since 2013.