Yesterday we reported a teaser, “Major Researcher to Make Major Move.” Today, EdisonReport can confirm that after 24 years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Mariana Figueiro, PhD has accepted a position as Center Director at the Institute for Health and as the Division Chief of Sleep and Circadian Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Rutgers University. From her time as a graduate student at the LRC until her current position as Full Professor and LRC Director, her passion has been on light and health research and education. She is the only academic at Rensselaer with four multi-million dollar R01 grants from the NIH/NIOSH as well as a prestigious NIH T32 training grant. She also has garnered loyal support from a wide range of industry sponsors. Her commitment to research, education and administration is unique.
In her new position she will lead research in the area of light and health, bringing to Rutgers a team of researchers, the LRC legacy, and many of the lessons learned at Rensselaer.
In a phone call with your humble editor, Figueiro stated, “This is a logical progression of our research bridging science to application. We will begin by focusing on the aging population, from the very young to the very old. I am deeply grateful for the support I received at the LRC over the years, and very much look forward to collaborating with my colleagues in the Institute for Health and the Department of Medicine at Rutgers.”
Read the press release from Rutgers here.