Joshua Sanes, Ph.D.,  Class of 1966 – Dr. Joshua Sanes is Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Director of the Center for Brain Science at Harvard University. Dr. Sanes has spent his research career studying the connections among neurons, called synapses that form the complex circuits responsible for our mental activities. He uses molecular, genetic and imaging approaches to understand how synapses form, mature and function.  The Center he directs supports an interdisciplinary approach that combines biology, chemistry, engineering, and psychology to look at the circuit level questions in neuroscience.

After graduating from Yale University in 1970 with degrees in Biochemistry and Psychology, Dr. Sanes earned a doctorate in Neurobiology from Harvard in 1976. Following postdoctoral work at the University of California at San Francisco, he joined the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis, MO where he spent over 20 years and held an Endowed Chair. In 2004, he returned to Harvard, assuming his current position. Dr. Sanes has authored over 300 publications and is a highly-sought after presenter at national and international symposia

Dr. Sanes is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and recipient of the Alden Spencer Award of Columbia University. He has served on the National Advisory Council of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, the Council of the Society for Neuroscience, and advisory panels for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Association, the Klingenstein Neuroscience Fund, the Searle Scholars Fund, the Stowers Institute, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

As a student in Williamsville, Josh was introduced to science by a prominent microbiologist, Robert Guthrie, who gave him the opportunity to work in his laboratory at the Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. At South, Josh was president of the Model U.N.; editor of the school newspaper, Billboard; played cello in the school orchestra, and was on the staff of the literary magazine, Will O 'The Wisp.