Martha Cyert appointed Chair of the Department of Biology

Professor Martha Cyert has been appointed Chair of the Department of Biology, effective September 1, 2020. Dr Cyert is Nancy Chang Professor of Biology and Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford University Fellow for Undergraduate Education.   Dr. Cyert looks forward to advancing and strengthening the Department by uniting the Biology community behind common missions of inclusion, mentorship, education and research.

Dr. Cyert joined the Biology Department in 1992 as an Assistant Professor. Her research program investigates the molecular mechanisms of calcium-dependent signal transduction by using biochemical and systems-level approaches. She has served as Associate Chair since 2014, and has held leadership positions across Stanford on the Advisory Board, Faculty Senate and Senate Steering committee, VPGE and Biosciences Diversity Councils, and the Bio-X leadership council. Dr. Cyert is a strong advocate for postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate education. She chaired the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Postdoctoral Affairs (2016-2019) and was Sr. Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (2010-13) where she spearheaded development of the Leland Scholars Program, which supports incoming freshmen from low-income backgrounds in their transition to Stanford. She led Department efforts to redesign the undergraduate curriculum and served as principal investigator and Program Director for the Cell and Molecular Biology Training Program (2010-2019), a large and long-running NIH-funded program that trains pre-doctoral students in Biology and several basic science departments in the School of Medicine. She also serves on the Public Affairs Advisory Council for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.