Educating Researchers

In 2006, Professor Kondev and biochemistry professor Jeff Gelles led a team of Brandeis faculty who won a two-year, $1 million Interfaces award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to establish a new interdepartmental program in quantitative biology. This is one of 10 such programs established nationwide, and its goal is to educate researchers working at the interface of the physical sciences and the life sciences.

Jané Kondev

Associate Professor of Physics
Ph.D., Cornell University

Current research
I work at the interface of physics and biology. My research group is particularly interested in how cells decide which genes they will express and to what extent, how they repair their DNA when it gets damaged and how viruses assemble inside cells. We develop mathematical models for processes within living cells, which lead to experimentally testable predictions.      

Favorite classroom experience
One of my undergraduate research assistants did not get into graduate school, probably because his grades were mediocre. But he was doing extremely well in research, so after graduation I hired him as a research assistant, for one year. The plan was to get a paper published on his research and then reapply. This is what he did, and the following year he was accepted into one of the best graduate programs in the country.  

What makes Brandeis special
Its size. Brandeis is one of the smallest top-tier research universities in the country. All the science departments are strongly connected, allowing interdisciplinary research to flourish. Science classes tend to be small, which makes teaching them a lot of fun.

Last book read for pleasure
"Intuition" by Allegra Goodman

Favorite world city to visit
Paris, for the pastry shops.