Steve Maren to lead Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology

Steve Maren, a neuroscientist who studies the neurobiology of emotional learning and memory, will become the next director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He will join the institute on August 16 and will serve as interim director until his appointment is approved by the Board of Trustees. 

Maren is currently the University Distinguished Professor and Charles H. Gregory Chair of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University. He is also affiliated with TAMU’s Institute for Neuroscience. He earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology at Illinois before completing master’s and doctoral degrees in neurobiology at the University of Southern California. Maren started his career at the University of Michigan before joining TAMU in 2012. 

“It is an honor and privilege to be selected to serve as the next director. I am excited to lead this vibrant community and build upon the remarkable Beckman legacy.” — Steve Maren

“We are delighted to welcome Steve back to Illinois,” said Susan Martinis, the vice chancellor for research and innovation at Illinois. “The Beckman Institute is one of the world’s most exciting and prestigious research environments and I can’t wait to see how the institute evolves under his leadership.” 

As an undergrad at the U. of I., Maren was among the first students to study in the newly created Beckman Institute in the late 1980s. His senior thesis described how brain cells encode emotional events.   

“My experience at the Beckman Institute was absolutely pivotal in shaping my research interests and launching my academic career,” Maren said. “I can’t overstate how excited I am to return to my alma mater, and to lead the Beckman Institute in its next chapter. 

Maren has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1995 and brings over $4.5M in current NIH funding to the U. of I. His research program is broadly focused on understanding brain regions and circuits that are important for memory retrieval, including memories for traumatic events. Maren’s work has international reach, and he is among the most highly cited behavioral neuroscientists in the world. He has mentored 37 graduate students and postdocs and serves on the editorial board of Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Learning & Memory, and Hippocampus. He also has extensive administrative experience. At TAMU, he has served as the Dean’s Research Fellow, and Chair of the Council of Principal Investigators, while at Michigan he led the Neuroscience Graduate Program.  

“Beckman researchers have long bridged deep disciplinary divides to address the most challenging problems in science and engineering,” Maren said. “My vision for the institute is to embrace this ethos and coalesce research communities around problems that only Beckman scientists can solve. 

“Imagine we could measure the activity of every neuron in the human brain. This next-generation technology is within reach, and I have no doubt that the Beckman community will continue to break new ground on these and other problems.” 

Maren succeeds physicist Nadya Mason, who recently left Illinois to become a dean at the University of Chicago. Following Mason’s departure, Catherine Murphy stepped in to lead the institute as interim director. She will return to her leadership role in the Department of Chemistry in time for the fall semester.  

“We are fortunate that Cathy Murphy — one of the university’s most highly regarded scholars and collaborators — generously stepped up to lead the Beckman Institute when we needed her,” Martinis said. “Chemistry is breathing a sigh of relief knowing that she will soon return as department head.” 

The Beckman Institute was founded with a $40M gift from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation in 1985 and is one of the first large-scale interdisciplinary research centers in the world.  Beckman draws researchers from more than 40 departments and 13 colleges on campus to explore major scientific and technological challenges. They break barriers on topics related to imaging, intelligence and the brain and molecules and materials, and imaging. The institute offers magnetic resonance and biomedical imaging tools, a full microscopy suite and a visualization laboratory that helps researchers analyze and visualize their data.  

“The research infrastructure at the Beckman Institute is unparalleled and it is a critical hub for campus research. It is also an important bridge for clinical science at Carle Health,” Maren said. “These partnerships are critical for broadening the reach of Beckman and developing new technologies that address problems in health and disease.”