Since turning down an audition with the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater to pursue science, Erich Jarvis has studied molecular pathways in avian brains as a window into how the brain controls complex behavior. He has proposed theories about the evolution of vocal production and learning in birds and how it relates to the origins of human language. A graduate of Hunter College, he earned his PhD in molecular neurobiology and animal behavior in 1995 at the Rockefeller University, where he did graduate and postdoctoral work in the lab of Fernando Nottebohm. Using a method he termed "behavioral molecular mapping" to determine how a bird's motor activities influence the resulting changes in gene expression in the brain, Jarvis has traced out the brain pathways for vocal learning in three distantly related birds - parrots, hummingbirds, and songbirds - and is now exploring evolutionary connections to understand how these pathways develop. Awards for his work include the NSF's Alan T. Waterman Award, the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award; his work made Discover’s top 100 science discoveries of 2005, and he was chosen one of Popular Science’s Brilliant 10 of 2006. Twitter