The MIT Department of Biology ("Course VII") is a center for research and teaching in the

life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...

. Many members of the faculty hold joint appointments with other departments at MIT and with outside institutions.

Faculty members

faculty members include:

Full Professors

* Tania A. Baker * David Bartel * Stephen P. Bell * Christopher Burge * Iain Cheeseman
Jianzhu Chen
*

Cathy Drennan Catherine (Cathy) Drennan is an American biochemist and crystallographer. She is the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Biochemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a professor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. ...

Gerald Fink Gerald Ralph Fink (born July 1, 1940) is an American biologist, who was Director of the Whitehead Institute at MIT from 1990 to 2001. He graduated from Amherst College in 1962 and received a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1965, having elucidate ...

* Frank Gertler * Alan Grossman * Leonard P. Guarente * H. Robert Horvitz, S.B. 1968
David HousmanRichard Hynes
* Barbara Imperiali *

Tyler Jacks Tyler Jacks is a David H. Koch Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a long-time HHMI investigator, and founding director of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, which brings together bi ...

Rudolf Jaenisch Rudolf Jaenisch (born on April 22, 1942) is a professor of biology at MIT and a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He is a pioneer of transgenic science, in which an animal’s genetic makeup is altered. Jaenisc ...

Chris KaiserAmy KeatingMonty Krieger
* Eric S. Lander
Michael T. LaubJacqueline Lees
* Troy Littleton * Harvey F. Lodish * David C. Page
Uttam RajBhandaryPeter Reddien
*

Aviv Regev Aviv Regev (Hebrew language, Hebrew: אביב רגב; born 11 July 1971) is a computational biologist and systems biologist and Executive Vice President and Head of Genentech Research and Early Development in Genentech/Roche. She is a core membe ...

* David M. Sabatini * Robert T. Sauer
Thomas Schwartz
* Phillip A. Sharp
Anthony Sinskey
* Hazel Sive
Frank Solomon
* Lisa Steiner *

Susumu Tonegawa is a Japanese scientist who was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987 for his discovery of V(D)J recombination, the genetic mechanism which produces antibody diversity. Although he won the Nobel Prize for his w ...

Matthew Vander HeidenGraham Walker
* Robert A. Weinberg, Ph.D. 1969 * Michael B. Yaffe * Richard A. Young

Associate professors

* Laurie Boyer
Mary GehringMichael HemannAdam C. Martin

Assistant professors

Eliezer CaloLindsay CaseJoseph H. DavisAnkur JainRebecca LamasonGene-Wei LiPulin LiSebastian LouridoStefani SprangerSeychelle VosOmer Yilmaz

Professors with primary appointments in other departments

* Sallie (Penny) Chisholm
Douglas Lauffenburger
* Elly Nedivi
Matthew Wilson

Professors emeriti

* Martha Constantine-Paton * Malcolm Gefter * Nancy Hopkins
Jonathan King
* Terry Orr-Weaver * Mary-Lou Pardue * Sheldon Penman * Phillips Robbins * Robert Rosenberg * Leona D. Samson *

Paul Schimmel Paul Reinhard Schimmel (born August 4, 1940) is an American biophysical chemist and translational medicine pioneer. Career Paul Schimmel is a Professor of Molecular Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute. Prior to joining The Scripps Resea ...

Edward Scolnick Edward Scolnick is a core investigator at the Broad Institute, the former founding director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at Broad Institute, and former head of research and development at Merck Research Laboratories. Educati ...

* Ethan Signer *

JoAnne Stubbe JoAnne Stubbe (born June 11, 1946) is an American chemist best known for her work on ribonucleotide reductases, for which she was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2009. In 2017, she retired as a professor of chemistry and biology at the M ...

William (Chip) Quinn

Department Heads

* 1889-1921 William T. Sedgwick * 1921-1942 Samuel C. Prescott * 1942-1955 Francis O. Schmitt * 1957-1966 Irwin W. Sizer * 1966-1977 Boris Magasanik * 1977-1985 Gene M. Brown * 1985-1989 Maurice Fox * 1989-1991 Richard O. Hynes * 1991-1999 Phillip Sharp * 1999-2004 Robert T. Sauer * 2004-201
Chris Kaiser
* 2012-2014 Tania Baker * 2014-2023 Alan Grossman * 2023 Amy Keating

Alumni

Alumni of the department include:

Nobel laureates

The department can claim several winners of the

Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single ...

among its faculty and alumni. They are: *

Michael Rosbash Michael Morris Rosbash (born March 7, 1944) is an American geneticist and chronobiologist. Rosbash is a professor and researcher at Brandeis University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Rosbash's research group cloned th ...

, 2017 *

Andrew Fire Andrew Zachary Fire (born April 27, 1959) is an American biologist and professor of pathology and of genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with Craig C. Mell ...

, 2006 * H. Robert Horvitz, 2002 *

Leland H. Hartwell Leland Harrison "Lee" Hartwell (born October 30, 1939) is an American former president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Nurse an ...

, 2001 * Phillip A. Sharp, 1993 *

E. Donnall Thomas Edward Donnall "Don" Thomas (March 15, 1920 – October 20, 2012)Frederick R. Appelbaum.Perspective: E. Donnall Thomas (1920–2012) Science 338(6111):1163, 30 November 2012 was an American physician, professor emeritus at the University o ...

, 1990 *

, 1987 *

David Baltimore David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He is a professor of biology at the California Institute of Tech ...

, 1975 *

Salvador Luria Salvador Edward Luria (; ; born Salvatore Luria; August 13, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an Italian microbiologist, later a Naturalized citizen of the United States#Naturalization, naturalized U.S. citizen. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology ...

, 1969 *

Har Gobind Khorana Har Gobind Khorana (9 January 1922 – 9 November 2011) was an Indian-American biochemist. While on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and ...

, 1968

Former faculty

Former faculty include: *

Angelika Amon Angelika Amon (January 10, 1967 – October 29, 2020) was an Austrian American molecular and cell biologist, and the Kathleen and Curtis Marble Professor in Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massa ...

Gene Brown Gene Brown may refer to: * Gene Brown (basketball) (1935–2020), American basketball player * Gene Brown (professor) (1926–2017), American professor of biochemistry * Gene Brown (politician) (1933–1996), member of the Florida House of Repre ...

* Arnold Demain * Herman Eisen *

Vernon Ingram Vernon Martin Ingram, (May 19, 1924 – August 17, 2006) was a German–American professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Biography Ingram was born Werner Adolf Martin Immerwahr in Breslau, Lower Silesia. When he w ...

* Susan Lindquist * Maurice Fox *

Irving London Irving M. London (July 24, 1918 – May 23, 2018) was a hematology, hematologist and geneticist. He was an associate professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons when he was selected to be the founding chair of ...

Alexander Rich Alexander Rich (15 November 1924 – 27 April 2015) was an American biologist and biophysicist. He was the William Thompson Sedgwick Professor of Biophysics at MIT (since 1958) and Harvard Medical School. Rich earned an A.B. ('' magna cum ...

Other notable alumni

Other notable alumni include *

Victor Ambros Victor R. Ambros (born December 1, 1953) is an American developmental biologist who discovered the first known microRNA (miRNA). He is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He completed both his undergraduate and doct ...

, Ph.D., 1979 * Cornelia Bargmann, Ph.D., 1987 * Kevin Eggan, Ph.D., 2002 * Stephen J. Elledge, Ph.D., 1983 *

, Ph.D., 1983 *

, Ph.D., 1964 * Richard O. Hynes, Ph.D., 1971 * Cynthia Kenyon, Ph.D., 1979 *

, Ph.D., 1970 * Allan C. Spradling, Ph.D., 1975

References

{{MITtemplate Biology Department