UC Berkeley Biological Clocks Laboratory
The Zucker Laboratory

Organization
    Our laboratory is housed in the modern fully accredited Northwest Animal Facility. Chris Tuthill and Kim Pelz, senior Staff Research Associates, have each been lab members for more than 20 years and are responsible for day-to-day lab operation. John Dark, a senior research scientist who began as a postdoctoral fellow, has been a lab member since 1979; he routinely works with graduate students on projects separate from those under my direction. My interests overlap extensively with those of Lance Kriegsfeld of the Psychology department faculty; we envision that some students will choose to work with both of us, although nominally housed in one or the other laboratory. You can get a flavor for both John's and Lance's work by consulting PubMed or Lance's web site . Chris and Kim maintain breeding colonies, order supplies, train graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in lab procedures, and maintain liaison with the Office of Laboratory Animal Care. They routinely perform surgeries and histological analyses for graduate students. They are assisted by 3 junior level research associates.

    I am readily available for consultation with students. I do not micro-manage student research; my input is adjusted to suit individual students' preferences. Some past students have consulted with me several times each week, others every few months. I place a high premium on research that adheres to strong inference principles as enunciated by Platt; 1964. I strive to foster collegiality, cooperation and an egalitarian, non-hierarchical lab atmosphere. It is common for graduate students on their own initiative to collaborate on research projects and generally assist each other in their research endeavors. Each student receives office space in Tolman Hall, whether enrolled in the Psychology, Integrative Biology or Neuroscience graduate programs.

    Our work has been continuously funded by the NIH for more than 3 decades; funding is assured through 2010. Typically students who do not secure fellowship support spend one semester each academic year as graduate student instructors (teaching assistants) and one semester as graduate student researchers, during which their salary is derived from research grants and they have no teaching responsibilities. All students receive summer salary support to pursue their research and almost without exception complete their graduate work in 5 years.

    Feel free to contact me for additional information; I can provide names and e-mail addresses of current and former graduate students from the psychology, integrative biology and neuroscience programs who can offer assessments of their Berkeley experience.
 
Irving Zucker | Department of Psychology | 3129 Tolman Hall
University of California | Berkeley, Ca 94720-1650
Phone 510-642-7136 | Fax 510-642-5293

Page Last Modified 11/01/05