Michael Rosbash

The circadian neurons are one of the few circuits in neurobiology where we have a chance to understand at multiple levels how different sets of neurons communicate with each other - including understanding the wiring rules, the biochemical rules, and the functional behavioral rules.

I was a difficult kid and a somewhat indifferent student but realized somehow that a new start at a good place, and far from home, was important.

I am grateful to my colleagues at Brandeis and to the unusual environment here that allows researchers to explore without boundaries while also engaging students in the process of discovery. This is a very special - perhaps unique - university.

Immigrants and foreigners have always been an indispensable part of our country, including its great record in scientific research.

Scientific careers rely on inheritance, environment, and random events, like all biological phenomena.

I try not to take sleep medication.

Shift work, where the body clock is continuously changed, is really deleterious on many levels - from psychology to physiology.

You've got to go for what you love and not look back 30 years, 40 years later and say, 'I never tried.' You got to try.

The same biological clock ticks away in humans and fruit flies, which underscores the importance of circadian timing to life on this planet.

I won't start quite at the beginning... but the emigration of my parents from Nazi Germany and their new life in the U.S.A. A one sentence summary of these events is that after some years of trouble and considerable hard work, my parents established a satisfactory if not comfortable life for themselves and their two children.

It's been overlooked for a long time as a real public health problem. All of western society is a little bit sleep-deprived, and when I say a little bit, I mean chronically.

We benefited from an enlightened post-war period in the United States: Our National Institutes of Health have enthusiastically and generously supported basic research.