Oliver Hobert

Biosketch

Dr. Oliver Hobert is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University and holds secondary appointments in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and the Department of Systems Biology at Columbia University Medical Center. He has received his Diploma in Biochemistry at the University of Bayreuth in Germany and earned his doctorate for thesis work done at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried. After his postdoc at Harvard Medical School on Boston, he joined the faculty at Columbia University in 1999 and has been an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2005. He is a recipient of the Mossman Award, the Jacob Javits Award and is an elected fellow of the AAAS and an Associate Member of EMBO. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2024.

Research Interests

Dr. Hobert’s lab is interested in the developmental programs that generate the astounding diversity of cell types in a nervous system, using the nematode C. elegans as a model system. The lab is also asking how neuronal circuits assemble, how nervous system development differs between the two sexes of the worm and how neuronal differentiation programs evolve. Lastly, the lab is also investing efforts in generating tools, resources and technology for nematode research.