Gerald Fischbach - Leaving Harvard (36/75)

To listen to more of Gerald Fischbach’s stories, go to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFx3DRAuU3bpy3bxgC3OzmB6 Gerald Fischbach (b. 1938) is an American neuroscientist and pioneering researcher. He pioneered the use of nerve cell cultures to study the electrophysiology, morphology and biochemistry of developing nerve-muscle and inter-neuronal synapses. [Listener: Christopher Sykes; date recorded: 2023] TRANSCRIPT: And my own ambitions had grown beyond individual things, and I was interested in running a department. Washington University has a great history of neuroscience. The most recent chair had been Max Cowen, but they had a great history before that. So, when they asked me to be the chairman, I struggled with that decision for a while, but Ruth and I decided let's move and see what it's like. So we left Harvard; few people do that. I had tenure at the time. I had tenure at the NIH, and I had tenure at Harvard. When I go back and calculate, I think I passed tenure review six times in my career, twice at Harvard, once at WashU, twice at the NIH [and once at Columbia]. Anyhow, it goes on and on.