Erich Jarvis, Ph.D., never could have dreamed he would be where he is today in his $1 million dollar lab.. He didn’t start off a “brainiac” or an honor student. He got some B’s in school and a few C’s. He was your average just get by kid. He grew up poor and had to live on welfare. He understood and was accustomed to doing without food.
His father, James Jarvis was extremely intelligent. James was able to rewrite Einstein’s theory of relativity at age 10.
He dreamt of becoming a great scientist but his dreams were not realized due to his skin colour and his scientific experimentation of drugs in the 60’s and 70’s. He, however, did instill a sense of hope and desire in his son. Jarvis was affected by his fathers thwarted dreams and strived to make his come true. He attended High School at the School of Performing Arts in New York. He wanted to become a dancer but soon after graduating, he decided to move toward the sciences, thinking he could make a greater impact on the world. Jarvis actually turned down a once in a lifetime opportunity to attend Alvin Ailey Dance Company. He turned this down to focus more on math and science. Unlike many bright minded students who were breezing through calculus and physics ahead of schedule, he took remedial courses.
He remembers the undergraduate laboratory run by Rivka Rudner, whom he calls his “science Mum”.
He began publishing papers. His first was a six page peer-reviewed paper in a very prominent scientific journal. He conducted research on bacterial protein synthesis genes.
Jarvis continued to grow and desire more as his artistic mind craved for creativity. He attended Rockefeller University for his graduate degree. There he met Dr. Fernando Nottebohm, who was researching molecular biology of songbird brain systems. This was a model for how brain pathways control the vocal learning process. He obtained a position at Duke University Medical Center as a faculty member at age 33. He published more papers on the relationship between the brains pathway for learned behavior and genes.
In 2002 Jarvis received the “Alan T Waterman Award”, one of the most coveted awards for a young scientist and in 2005, the National Science Foundation awarded him a “Directors Pioneer Award”, the highest bestowed on a scientist. He was honored with a position at the Hughes Medical Institute in 2008.
Jarvis thought it unbeneficial to study animals which were irrelevant to their natural behaviors. He wished to study the animals awake and in their natural environment as much as possible. Throughout his research he was able to map the brain process of particular birds learning songs through imitation. This was only ascribed to a small number of species which included bats, Dolphins, whales and of course humans.
Jarvis also discovered night vision magnetic detecting regions of the brain for night migratory birds, foxP2 in songbirds which is also found in human speech development, Context differences regarding socialization in brain activation. All of this stemmed from behaviorally regulated gene expressions.
Jarvis believes his ending up researching songbirds is a bigger blessing in disguise, because it coincidently brings him closer to truly understanding how the human brain works.
Now with the much appreciated funds and various awards which help shed light on the importance of his work, he can discover the connectivity songbirds and human have. He hopes to find the gene that construct vocal learning circuits in humans as well as birds. He hopes to use this discovery to mend vocal learning behavior.
He hopes other disadvantaged minorities might experiment and look to devise new technologies.
, but he is afraid they are not given that vision or a glimpse of the possibilities.
