Michael Rosbash, already awarded the Greuber Neuroscience Prize in 2009 for his research on brain and sleep disorders, has been named the first Peter Greuber Endowed Chair in Neuroscience, a new university position on the board of trustees.

Rosbash, who runs the Rosbash lab, has made significant headway in the scholarship of circadian rhythms of Drosophila, the fruit fly. The new chair position is not the first time Rosbash has been honored by the Greuber family. In 2009, he and his colleagues Jeffrey Hall and Michael Young were awarded the Greuber Neuroscience Prize for their work in the field.

The Greuber Prize awards three scientists in the fields of neuroscience, cosmology and genetics each $500,000. It funds social justice and women’s rights programs through Yale Law as well.

Rosbash has been researching Drosophila at Brandeis for more than two decades with his colleagues, where he discovered the universality of sleep genes. He directs the Brandeis National Center for Behavioral Genomics. Rosbash is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

The new chair from the Greubers contributes a significant amount of funding through a gift to Brandeis, and increases funding for Neuroscience research, which has already garnered considerable attention for its inquiry into neurodegenerative and aging disorders. Patricia Greuber believes that Michael Rosbash’s work is “an appropriate and lasting way” to honor her late husband, according to a BrandeisNOW announcement.

Rosbash is honored to receive the chair, especially as the work of the Greubers is already known for connecting scientific research and Brandeis’ common mission of social justice.