Catherine Dulac

Catherine Dulac is the Samuel W. Morris University Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Dr. Dulac’s work focuses on understanding brain mechanisms underlying the control of social behaviors in mammals. Her research has helped decipher the unique characteristics of social recognition, including the sensory cues that trigger distinct social behaviors, the nature and identity of social behavior circuits in males and females and their modulation by the animal physiological status. Her work combines cutting edge genetics, transcriptomics, physiology and imaging approaches to uncover the neural basis underlying instinctive social behaviors, a set of brain functions that are typically highly impaired in mental illness.

She is a member of the US and French Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. She is an Officer of the Legion d’Honneur and a recipient of multiple awards including the Karl Spencer Lashley Award, the Ralph W. Gerard Prize and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.