Gerald D. Fischbach, M.D.
Neurobiology
Dr. Fischbach is the Scientific Director of The Simons Foundation, where he
oversees the Autism Initiative focused on the advancement of Autism
research. He previously served as Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences
at Columbia University and was the former Director of the National Institute
of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the N.I.H., where he served from
1998-2001. He was the Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology and
Chairman of the Neurobiology Departments of Harvard Medical School and
Massachusetts General Hospital from 1990 to 1998. During 1981 to 1990, he
was the Edison Professor of Neurobiology and Head of the Department of
Anatomy and Neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine.
Throughout his career, Dr. Fischbach has studied the formation and
maintenance of synapses. He pioneered the use of nerve cell cultures to
study the electrophysiology, morphology and biochemistry of developing
nerve-muscle and inter-neuronal synapses. Dr. Fischbach is a past President
of the Society of Neuroscience, as well as a member of the National Academy
of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of
Medicine. He received an M.D. degree from Cornell University Medical School.