U of I Beckman Institute getting new director

URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — The University of Illinois’ Beckman Institute is expected to get a brand new director this month.

Neuroscientist Steve Maren will take the place of physicist Nadya Mason, who will now become a dean at the University of Chicago. Since Mason’s departure, Catherine Murphy served as interim director, stepping away from her leadership role in the Department of Chemistry. She will return to that role upon Maren’s appointment.

Maren is currently at Texas A&M University as the University Distinguished Professor and Charles H. Gregory Chair of Liberal Arts. He also used to be the Dean’s Research Fellow and Chair of the Council of Principal Investigators.

Maren focuses on the neurobiology of emotional learning and memory. In fact, he is one of the most-cited behavioral neuroscientists in the world. He serves on the editorial board of Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Learning & Memory, and Hippocampus.

With Maren’s appointment, he will bring $4.5 million in funding from the National Institute of Health to the U of I. He will continue to study memory retrieval, including memories for traumatic events. Maren said he believes that the ability to measure every neuron’s activity in the human brain is a feat that can soon be achieved through the Beckman Institute and its students.

Before heading south, he attended the U of I and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology in the late ’80s. Maren was among one of the first batches students to study in the then-new Beckman Institute. Maren then went to the University of Southern California for his master’s and doctoral degrees in neurobiology.

On August 16, he will return to his old UIUC stomping grounds and take the first step towards his new director role, serving as interim director until the Board of Trustees approves his appointment.

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