Mark H. Ellisman, Ph.D.
Dr. Mark H. Ellisman established NCMIR in 1988 to achieve greater understanding of the structure and function of the nervous system by developing 3D light and electron microscopy methods. Dr. Ellisman, also a founding fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, has received numerous awards including the Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigatory Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Creativity Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Since 1996, he has been serving as the founding director of the UCSD Center for Research in Biological Systems (CRBS).
After earning a Ph.D. in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Dr. Ellisman began his tenure as a professor of neurosciences and bioengineering at UCSD in 1977. Since then, he has received several teaching awards, including the Department of Neurosciences Award for Outstanding Teaching in 1987 and 1992, and was named the University Lecturer in Biomedicine in 2001. He is also the interdisciplinary coordinator for the National Partnership for Advanced Computing Infrastructure (NPACI) and leads NPACI’s Neuroscience thrust, which involves integration of brain research and advanced computing and communications technologies. In 2001, he founded the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN), an NIH program that provides a multiscale imaging infrastructure linking major neuroimaging centers around the country. The following year, Dr. Ellisman was appointed to the National Advisory Council of the NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) and to the Physics Division Review Committee of the Department of Energy, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Dr. Ellisman’s research promotes the development and application of advanced imaging technologies to obtain new information about cell structure and function, structural correlates of nerve impulse conduction and axonal transport, cellular interactions during nervous system regeneration, cellular mechanisms regulating transient changes in cytoplasmic calcium, and aging in the central nervous system.
View Dr. Ellisman's curriculum vitae.
