Michael Menaker

Michael Menaker (May 19, 1934 – February 14, 2021) was an American chronobiologist, a scientist who studied the biological clocks that help living things keep track of time. He worked as a Commonwealth Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia. Menaker’s important work helped scientists understand how animals, including humans, follow daily and seasonal rhythms.

His research focused on circadian rhythmicity, the internal patterns that guide when we sleep, eat, and do other activities. He made key discoveries, such as finding a special mutation in golden hamsters that changed how they kept their daily schedules. Menaker also explored how light affects these clocks, studying extra-retinal photoreceptors in non-mammalian vertebrates.

Among his many achievements, Menaker helped locate a circadian oscillator in the pineal gland of birds, a small gland that plays a role in controlling biological rhythms. Throughout his career, he wrote nearly 200 scientific papers, sharing his findings with the world and advancing our understanding of how living things measure time.

Early life and education

Michael Menaker grew up in New York City. He graduated from Swarthmore College in 1955 with a degree in biology, then earned a Ph.D. from Princeton University. During his time at Princeton, he studied the natural daily rhythms of bats (Myotis lucifugus) in the lab of Colin Pittendrigh, a leader in research on biological clocks.

After finishing his Ph.D. in 1960, Menaker did more studies at Harvard University with Donald Griffin, focusing on how bats hibernate. Later, in 1962, he joined the faculty at University of Texas at Austin and began studying daily rhythms in birds like the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and in golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus).

Academic career

Michael Menaker held important positions at several universities, including the University of Texas, the University of Oregon, and the University of Virginia. Since 1987, he was the Commonwealth Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia and led the Biology Department there from 1987 to 1993. He inspired many scientists, such as Joseph Takahashi, who now leads the Neuroscience Department at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Throughout his career, Menaker wrote nearly 200 research papers and secured funding for his studies for over 60 years.

Scientific work

Michael Menaker was a biologist known for his important discoveries about how living things keep time. In 1968, he showed that birds could tell time even without their eyes by studying sparrows that had their eyes removed. These birds could still follow daily light and dark patterns, suggesting they had another way to sense light besides their eyes.

Later, in 1988, Menaker found a special type of hamster with a shorter day length than normal. This helped scientists understand how genes control daily rhythms in mammals. His work revealed that a tiny part of the brain, called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, is essential for keeping these daily rhythms.

Later work

Michael Menaker’s lab at the University of Virginia studied how animals’ internal clocks work. They used special rats to watch how genes behave over day and night cycles. This helped them learn if all the body’s clocks stay in sync when light patterns change.

Menaker also found a special type of hamster that had a different internal clock. This discovery was made when his student, Ashli Moore, got a hamster from a student who wanted one with a more normal schedule. Menaker worked with these hamsters and later collaborated with Carla Green’s lab at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center to learn more.

Awards and honors

Michael Menaker received many awards and honors for his work. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He also earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Photobiology in 2002 and an honorary doctorate from the University of Groningen in 2009.