María de la Paz Fernández is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Barnard College in the Department of Neuroscience and Behavior. The main interests of the lab are in the neuronal control of sleep/wake cycles and sex differences in the brain and behavior. Dr. Fernández is faculty in the Columbia Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior and is a Pew Latin American Fellow in the Biomedical Sciences. In 2023 she received an NSF CAREER Award.
Education and Research Positions
Dr. Fernandez received her undergraduate degree at the University of Quilmes, in Argentina, where she worked with Dr. Diego Golombek on human seasonality and environmental cues. She earned her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires in 2008 studying clock outputs and structural plasticity in circadian clock neurons with Dr. Fernanda Ceriani at the Behavioral Genetics Laboratory, Leloir Institute. She conducted postdoctoral research on the role of chemosensory communication on aggressive behavior in Drosophila in the lab of Dr. Edward A. Kravitz at the Harvard Medical School Department of Neurobiology from 2008-2013. She joined the IBioBA- Max Planck Partner Institute of Buenos Aires in 2013 as a group leader, and the faculty at Barnard College of Columbia University in 2019.