Kevin Monahan Appointed MacMillan Faculty Development Chair in Life Sciences

The Rutgers University Board of Governors has appointed Kevin Monahan to the Duncan and Nancy MacMillan Faculty Development Chair in the Life Sciences effective January 1, 2020.

A transformative scientist in the field of developmental neuroscience, Monahan has served as an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, earning selection as a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar, with special distinction as the Milton E. Cassel Scholar.

Recognized for a seminal discovery that transformed the field of olfactory neuroscience, as illustrated by his featured article in the journal Nature in 2019, Monahan seeks to understand the gene regulatory mechanisms that specify diverse cell-types and maintain their identity for the life of an organism. His lab uses molecular and genomic approaches to assay gene expression, chromatin structure, and the 3D folding of the genome in primary cells and tissues.

Prior to his arrival at Rutgers in 2020, Monahan served a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center, working at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute investigating the mechanisms that regulate stochastic expression of olfactory receptor genes. From 2011 to 2014, he was a postdoc in the Department of Anatomy at The University of California, San Francisco, investigating the mechanisms that generate stochastic expression of olfactory receptor genes.

Monahan earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 2011 from Harvard University, where he studied the gene regulatory mechanisms controlling the stochastic expression of the clustered protocadherin genes, after receiving his bachelor’s degree in biology from Haverford College in 2005.