A Transition in Leadership for the Department of Neuroscience

Dear Colleagues,

I am very pleased to announce that Gwyneth Card, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience (in the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute), has been appointed chair of the Department of Neuroscience at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, effective October 1, 2025. Steven Siegelbaum, PhD, let me know earlier this year that he would step down as chair. He will continue in his role as professor of neuroscience and pharmacology.

Gwyneth serves as a principal investigator at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She focuses on the sensory, motor and brain cells that underlie movement in animals—and specifically, fruit flies—to uncover universal principles about movement and how animals decide on a course of action. Gwyneth and her team study Drosophila escape behavior in ecologically relevant situations, combining new whole-brain connectivity map data and high-throughput, high-resolution behavioral quantification with genetic, electrophysiological, and functional imaging techniques.

Gwyneth joined Columbia in 2022 after serving as a group leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus. She received her PhD in bioengineering from the California Institute of Technology, a Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge, and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.

I would like to extend my deepest appreciation to Steven Siegelbaum, PhD, for his exemplary leadership of the Department of Neuroscience as chair since 2009. Since joining the VP&S faculty in 1981, he has made transformational contributions to Columbia and to the field of neuroscience, serving as a principal investigator at the Zuckerman Institute and a member of the Kavli Institute.  

Steve leads efforts to understand how electrical signals in the brain encode memories, and how changes to these signals play a role in psychiatric disorders. Steve’s team specifically studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying electrical signaling and synaptic transmission in the nervous system. His work has revealed how the active and passive properties of neuronal dendrites regulate the integration of synaptic inputs and the induction of long-term plasticity to control the flow of information through neural circuits important for learning and memory. Widely recognized in the field of neuroscience, Steve is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He previously served as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Steve has long been dedicated to training the next generation of scientists. He was co-director of the pharmacology PhD program and has overseen the doctoral program in neurobiology and behavior. He has trained over 25 PhD students and 30 postdoctoral fellows. In addition, he has trained a number of undergraduates from underrepresented communities through summer research programs. 

I want to offer my gratitude to the search committee, led by Jonathan Javitch, MD, PhD, the Lieber Professor of Experimental Therapeutics in Psychiatry and Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, for their dedication and efforts during the search process.

Please join me in congratulating Gwyneth on her new role, and in thanking Steve for his exceptional service to the Department of Neuroscience.

All my best,

Katrina Armstrong, MD
Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences
Dean, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons