The Peter and Patricia Gruber foundation named Prof. Michael Rosbash (BIOL) the first Peter Gruber Endowed Chair in Neuroscience, according to remarks made by University President Frederick Lawrence during last Thursday's faculty meeting.

The chair, which was endowed by the Gruber Foundation, "join[s] a name associated with funding science prizes with one of the leading brain research centers in higher education," according to a March 14 BrandeisNOW press release.

Rosbash, who could not be reached for comment by press time, said, according to the press release, that he was "honored."

The Gruber Foundation is a private, U.S.-based philanthropic organization that "honors and encourages educational excellence, social justice and scientific achievements that better the human condition," according to its website.

Rosbash was also named a 2009 laureate of the Gruber Neuroscience Prize, along with Prof. Emeritus Jeffrey Hall (BIOL) and head of the Laboratory of Genetics and Professor at Columbia University Michael Young. According to a June 15, 2011 press release from the foundation, they were recognized for "revealing the gene-driven mechanism that controls rhythm in the nervous system."

In addition, Rosbash, Hall and Young were awarded the 2011 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Basic Research of Biology or Biochemistry from Columbia University earlier this year, according to a Jan. 3 BrandeisNOW press release.

In the press release, Rosbash described his research on circadian rhythms and sleep in Drosophila fruit flies. Rosbash said he hopes to understand the purpose and process of sleep beyond its relationship to circadian rhythms.

-Sara Dejene