Darcy Brisbane Kelley

Darcy B. Kelley is the Harold Weintraub Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University. She joined the Columbia faculty from Princeton University in 1981. Professor Kelley directed the Neural Systems and Behavior course at the Marine Biological Laboratory from 1985-1989 and founded Columbia’s Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior – which she continues to direct – in 1995. She received her B.A. from Barnard College magna cum laude in 1970 and her Ph.D. from The Rockefeller University in 1975.

The research in her laboratory has focused on the neurobiology of vocal communication and the sexual differentiation of the nervous system. Her research program has been recognized by two Jacob Javits awards from the National Institutes of Health (1985- 1992 and 1995 – 2002) and by a number of distinguished lectureships and awards,. Dr. Kelley is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the International Society for Neuroethology.

In 2002 Professor Kelley was appointed a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in recognition of her efforts in creating Columbia’s Core Course in science, Frontiers of Science, and she received Columbia’s Lenfest Award for teaching and research in 2009. She serves on the Advisory Boards of the Gates Foundation-funded Inspark Learning Network that develops introductory science courses using online adaptive learning platforms and the University of the People.

Professor Kelley is currently a member of the Boards of Trustees of the Wenner Gren Foundation and the American Association of Colleges and Universities and serves as scientific advisor to Sloan Foundation-funded projects that use radio, movies and theater to convey scientific themes. She is an editor of Developmental Neurobiology and a reviewing editor of eNeuro and has served on many review panels for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.