| Erich Jarvis,
Ph.D. 2005 Honoree |
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| Having overcome poverty and strife, Erich Jarvis has a new song to sing. The world-renowned neurobiologist at Duke University Medical Center is noted for his research of songbirds, parrots and hummingbirds. By learning how birds are able to project sound, Jarvis hopes his studies lead to the treatment of speech problems in humans, such as stuttering. Jarvis is currently an associate professor in the department of neurobiology at the North Carolina university, where he heads a team of researchers in the field of vocal communication. Using songbirds as the main animal model, the scientists are learning how the brain is able to learn the behavior of sound. At the age of six, Jarvis' mother took him and his three siblings to live with relatives after dealing with their father's continuous battle with schizophrenia and drugs. |
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Being a witness to his father's deterioration, Jarvis was determined not to become a statistic.
While his father lived inside caves in New York, Jarvis went on to receive his bachelor of arts in biology and mathematics from Hunter College in Manhattan. In 1995, he received his Ph.D. in molecular neurobiology and animal behavior from The Rockefeller University — one of only 52 African Americans out of more than 4,300 biologists to earn a doctorate.
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"Do something that will have a positive effect on the world." |
In 2002, Jarvis received the National Science Foundation's Alan T. Waterman Award, which is an esteemed honor given to promising young researchers. The award was accompanied by a $500,000 grant to continue his research.
Because Jarvis was encouraged by people around him to break the cycle of drugs, poverty and violence, he expects his children to stay focused just as he did growing up in Harlem. Unfortunately, Jarvis' father was murdered in 1989 before he had the opportunity to see the accomplishments the young scientist made.
Today, Jarvis and his wife, Miriam, urge their two children to excel and accept nothing but the best. With Jarvis' contributions to science as proof, he follows his belief that everyone should "do something that will have a positive effect on the world."
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