Michael Rosbash
It’s Time To Honor The Scientist Who Explained Our Body’s Clock
Michael Rosbash’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine — for discovering the genetic mechanisms of the circadian rhythm, the body’s biological clock — was the crowning achievement of a lifetime of research and mentoring.
Rosbash arrived at Brandeis University in 1974; he has never taught anywhere else. Upon his arrival he quickly became friends with Jeffrey Hall, with whom he shared the prize 43 years later. Rosbash says they bonded over a love of tobacco, alcohol and basketball. He also ingratiated himself into the Brandeis faculty by being outgoing, helpful and always quick with a joke — often at his own expense.
In 1982, the pair began researching the genetics of the circadian rhythm in fruit flies. Eventually they discovered that a certain gene controls how different bodily processes act during the night and day. That discovery has had a radical effect on medicine, plant science and environmental science.
Rosbash’s colleagues say that success has never gone to his head. He continues to help with daily departmental administration, to share his lab’s funding with other Brandeis researchers and to mentor students.
At a press conference celebrating the prize, Rosbash, 73, responded to one student’s request for advice.
“It’s the same advice I give my kids: Find your star, find something you love and go for it,” Rosbash said. “You’ve got to go for what you love, and not look back 30 years, 40 years later and say, ‘I never tried.’ You got to try.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
