1. Benjamin Barres was an American neurobiologist at Stanford University.
23 Facts About Ben Barres
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Ben Barres's research focused on the interaction between neurons and glial cells in the nervous system.
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Ben Barres transitioned to male in 1997, and became the first openly transgender scientist in the National Academy of Sciences in 2013.
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Ben Barres was born on September 13,1954, in West Orange, New Jersey, and was assigned female at birth.
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Ben Barres obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School, and a residency in neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine.
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Ben Barres completed a PhD in neurobiology there in 1990, then did postdoctoral training at University College London under Martin Raff.
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In 1993, Ben Barres joined the faculty of Neurobiology at the Stanford School of Medicine.
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Ben Barres authored or co-authored papers in journals such as Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Science, and Cell.
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Ben Barres's research involved study of mammalian glial cells of the central nervous system, including the exploration of their function and development.
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Early in his time at Stanford, Ben Barres discovered the importance of glial cells in the formation, development, maturation, and regeneration of neurons.
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Ben Barres's lab discovered and developed methods for the purification and culturing of retinal ganglion cells and the glial cells with which they interact, including the oligodendrocytes and astrocytes of the optic nerve.
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Ben Barres studied control of synapses by glia, and the differentiation of astrocytes by endothelial cells.
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Ben Barres investigated the role of the protein Id2 in the control of oligodendrocyte development and established that removing this protein led to premature oligodendrocyte maturation.
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Ben Barres described experiences of gender discrimination at an early age.
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Ben Barres was the top student in the class, but found it hard to get a willing supervisor for research.
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Ben Barres lost a scholarship to a man who had only one publication, while he already had six.
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Ben Barres was critical of economist Lawrence Summers and others who have claimed that one reason there are fewer women than men in science and engineering professorships might be that fewer women than men had the very high levels of "intrinsic aptitude" that such jobs required.
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Ben Barres spoke and wrote openly about being a trans man and his experiences transitioning gender identity in 1997, and his experiences of being treated differently as a female scientist versus a male scientist.
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Ben Barres died on December 27,2017, some 20 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, at his home in Palo Alto, California.
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Ben Barres was survived by two sisters and a brother.
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Ben Barres has won teaching awards: the Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Kaiser Award for Innovative and Outstanding Contributions to Medical Education.
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Ben Barres is an inducted member of the Reeve Foundation International Research Consortium on Spinal Cord Injury.
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Ben Barres became a member and elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011.