Samuel Sober, Ph.D.

Dr. Sober takes a proactive and energetic approach to mentoring. He has shown a strong commitment to improving diversity in science and is active in helping individuals from non-traditional backgrounds. Some extraordinary efforts have included the creation of an institutional training module around sexual harassment, and engagement both personally and among students in social justice efforts, including through the development of a neurobiology course for incarcerated individuals. Trainees commented in a variety of ways that they viewed Dr. Sober as a strong advocate, who would be in their corner to help them achieve both personal and professional success. Dr. Sober's research focuses on understanding how neurons evoke a pattern of activation to produce a desired motor output and behavior. Through research on vocal behavior in songbirds and forelimb behavior in rodents, he seeks to understand how signals are transformed across levels of the nervous system and recoded during motor learning.