Faculty Profiles

Erik is a neuroscientist with a broad interest in understanding how brains generate behaviors. He studied cell and molecular biology at the University of Michigan (BS '97), trained in neurobiology as a graduate student at Columbia University (PhD '06) and was a postdoc at Boston University and the University of Utah. His research primarily investigates how neurons and neural circuits generate vocal behaviors of the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis. Much of his research employs electrical recordings of vocal neurons. Since arriving at Reed in 2012, he has also been collaborating with Reed students to use molecular tools to identify genes that are critical for the production, development and evolution of frog vocalizations. Erik's courses focus on understanding how neurons work, and how nervous systems control physiologically critical functions such sensory processing, movement, and metabolism.

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