Rae Silver, Ph.D., is Helene L. and Mark N. Kaplan Professor of Natural and Physical Sciences and holds joint appointments at Barnard College and at Columbia University. Dr Silver is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association of Arts and Sciences. She has participated extensively in scientific and educational activities including serving as chair for NASA’s Research Maximization and Prioritization Committee reviewing Scientific Priorities for the International Space Station; Society for Neuroscience Program committee (Theme E - Autonomic  and Limbic System); Chair, External Advisory Committee, NSF Center for the Study of  Biological Rhythms at the  University of Virginia, search committee for editor of journals, department chairs and Provost at various institutions, and has been a panel member of a number of committees, including Committee member, NASA: International Space Station Cost and Management Evaluation Task Force; NSF Center for Behavioral Neuroscience External Advisory Board member Georgia State, Emory and other colleges, Society for Neuroscience Education Committee Ford Foundation Minority Fellowship Review panel; President, Society Research in Biological Rhythms. As Senior Advisor at the National Science Foundation, she worked with NSF staffers in all the scientific directorates to create a series of workshops to examine opportunities for the next decade in making advances in Neuroscience through the joint efforts of biologists, chemists, educators, mathematicians, physicists, psychologists and statisticians.

Silver’s studies of the biological clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the brain were the first to conclusively demonstrate that this brain tissue can be readily transplanted and restore function at a very high success rate in an animal model. The laboratory is renowned for analysis of the input, output and intraneuronal circuits underlying the function of the brain’s master clock.  A second line of research entails the study of mast cells (renowned for their role in producing allergic reactions) in modulating brain function and as a major source of brain histamine. The research has been supported without interruption by NIH and NSF, among other sources.

Dr. Silver is deeply committed to educating undergraduate and graduate students, both at the national and institutional level and in the hands on context of the laboratory. Consistent with this interest, she created the undergraduate program in Quantitative Reasoning at Bernard College, and published, with colleagues, studies of mathematical learning. She initiated the undergraduate major in Neuroscience, serving as its first Program Director. She also served as Director of the Graduate Program in Psychology at Columbia University.