Rate My Professor Florian Engert

Florian Engert is a Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, where he has been a faculty member since 2002. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 1997. Subsequently, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology in Munich for two years, followed by additional postdoctoral positions at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2002, he joined Harvard as an assistant professor and was granted tenure and promoted to full professor in 2009.

The research in the Engert laboratory centers on developing larval zebrafish as a model system for the comprehensive analysis of neural circuits that govern visually induced behaviors. By combining quantitative behavioral assays with advanced imaging techniques such as calcium indicators and two-photon microscopy, the lab achieves whole-brain monitoring of neuronal activity in awake, intact larval zebrafish. This approach enables detailed examination of how neural activity underlies complex behaviors and adapts during learning. Notable early contributions include investigations into synaptic plasticity, such as "Synapse specificity of long-term potentiation breaks down at short distances" (Nature, 1997) and "Dendritic spine changes associated with hippocampal long-term synaptic plasticity" (Nature, 1999), the latter recognized as a breakthrough of the year in neurosciences by Science magazine. More recent landmark publications encompass "Brain-wide neuronal dynamics during motor adaptation in zebrafish" (Nature, 2012), "Whole-brain activity mapping onto a zebrafish brain atlas" (Nature Methods, 2015), "Whole-brain serial-section electron microscopy in larval zebrafish" (Nature, 2017), and "Neural circuits underlying visually evoked escapes in larval zebrafish" (Neuron, 2016). Engert's work has significantly influenced the field of systems neuroscience by pioneering whole-brain circuit mapping and functional analysis in a vertebrate model. He has been honored with the McKnight Scholar Award in 2006, the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award in 2011, a Human Frontier Science Program award in 2014, and grants from the Simons Foundation.