Joanne Berger-Sweeney

Joanne Berger-Sweeney is Allene Lummis Russell Professor in Neuroscience and Associate Dean at Wellesley College. She has been a member of the Wellesley faculty since 1991. Before coming to Wellesley, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute Nationale de Sante et Reserche Medicale (INSERM) in Paris, France.

Life seems to have come full circle of Joanne Berger-Sweeney who was an undergaduate major in Psychobiology at Wellesley College ('79). After finishing her undergraduate studies, she turned her sights to California to pursue a Masters of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley (1981). The California sunshine and a job as an environmental engineer enticed her to remain in California for the next four years before returning to the east coast to pursue a Ph.D. in Neurotoxicology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD (1989). After four years of classes, laboratory work and a dissertation, Joanne Berger-Sweeney was ready to take on the scientific community in Paris, France. Two years in Paris provided the opportunity for good science and great fun before she returned to the United States and a faculty position at Wellesley College.

Joanne Berger-Sweeney is a distinguished and prolific neuroscientist whose research focuses on the neurobiology of learning and memory. Her research ranges from behavioral studies to neurochemical studies to anatomical studies, all aimed at understanding mechanisms involved in normal memory processes and cognitive processes and how these processes malfunction in both neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Rett syndrome and Alzheimer's disease. Her research has resulted in more than 50 publications and in research grants from private and public foundations. Her work also has been recognized by (among other honors) a National Science Foundation Young Investigator award.

She is a Fellow of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society and Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience, and she directs the Society for Neuroscience’s Minority Neuroscience Fellowship Program, a federally funded training grant to provide predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships to underrepresented minorities engaging in neuroscience research. At Wellesley, in addition to her teaching in the Biological Sciences Department, she has been one of the driving forces behind the college’s recently established neuroscience major. She has also served on a wide range of committees, including the Dean of Students Search Committee, the Board of Appeals, the Committee on Faculty Appointments, the President’s Advisory Committee, the Committee on Curriculum and Instruction, and the Presidential Search Committee.

Away from the classroom and in the lab, Joanne Berger-Sweeney enjoys cooking, skiing (though only a beginner) and calypso music. She also enjoys traveling, discovering new places, and meeting new people.

Profile last updated: 7/04