Donald S. Faber
Donald S. Faber, professor emeritus and chair of the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1999 to 2012, passed away April 6, 2025.
Faber received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in physiology from the University at Buffalo. He received postdoctoral training in Buffalo and at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany.
In 1972, Faber began his independent career as an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati. In 1974, he moved back to the University at Buffalo, where he remained for nearly 20 years. In 1992, he became the chair of neurobiology and anatomy at MCP-Hahnemann School of Medicine in Philadelphia, which later became part of the Drexel University College of Medicine. In 1999, he joined the faculty at Einstein as the Florence and Irving Rubinstein Professor and chair of Neuroscience and the director of the Rose F. Kennedy Center.
Among his other roles, Faber was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1999. He also had a strong association with Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where he served as co-director of the Neurobiology Course and on the MBL Science Council.
Faber's influential research focused on the properties and regulation of synaptic transmission and on understanding how neuronal activity controls sensorimotor behavior.
Faber served as Treasurer for The Society for Neuroscience from 2009 to 2012 and served in other leadership roles as a long-time member, including Committee on Neuroscience Departments and Programs, Scientific Publications Committee, Finance Committee, and Membership Committee.
