Songbird Whisperer Returns to Hunter
Songbird Whisperer Returns to Hunter College
May 14, 2017
The laboratory spaces and adjoining offices are a far cry from the elaborate lobby of Founder’s Hall at Rockefeller University. Large cardboard packed boxes marked ‘Smith Hall – Rockefeller University” fill the space and signal transition. In this case, a scientist and his birds have flown north from Duke University in North Carolina.
Dr. Erich D. Jarvis, Ph.D. will make his way back to New York City this summer with plans to open new laboratories and initiate science programs for underrepresented students –– this personal look at the scientist may explain why.
Jarvis 51, renowned neurobiologist, is famous for his research on vocal learning songbirds. His research and publications on learned vocal communication have garnered him wide attention within the sciences. Jarvis graduated from Hunter College with dual-bachelors in Biology and Mathematics in 1988 and continued his doctoral studies at Rockefeller University. A couple of decades later and a few more degrees, the scientist returns to his Hunter roots.
The scientist, sporting a light blue cotton dress shirt, rolled at the sleeve, is seated upright at one of those faux wood commercial desks. He leans in with clasped hands and begins to talk about his new venture with his alma maters Hunter College and Rockefeller University.
“Jennifer Raab, the president of Hunter was asking if I would come back as a faculty member for the last four years,” said Jarvis, smiling unapologetically. Raab thought Jarvis could be helpful in providing both faculty mentorship as well as enhance diversity in the sciences. Diversity –– a word Jarvis has learned to embrace in the uniquely modeled institution of academia.
While Jarvis’ admiration for the sciences runs deep, it may surprise you to know that his first love was the art of dance. The slender, six-footer attended the High School of Performing Arts and had the opportunity to work with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. However, instead, he chose to study Biology and Mathematics at Hunter.
Jarvis attributed much of his undergraduate success to hard work, his relationship with Dr. Rivka Rudner and a government funded program –– Maximizing Access to Research Careers. The program provided support to Hunter’s underrepresented undergraduate students pursuing biomedical science careers. Jarvis published four research papers with the guidance of Dr. Rivka Rudner, an unprecedented amount of research for an undergraduate student.
“I worked my butt off,” joked the professor.
The scientist didn’t want to reveal the schools of which he was referencing, but he recalled some graduate programs reacting blatantly surprised that an undergraduate student of color was able to publish several research papers before graduation.
“The color of my skin went from a disadvantage to some kind of novelty and because of that novelty, some kind of advantage,” said Jarvis. “It was a very strange feeling because I had never felt any advantage in my life before.”
“So can we repeat that,” he said.
Jarvis wasn’t asking a question but more likely declaring that he has the ability to foster the same academic environment he was exposed to with the hopes of producing the same empowered student that resulted as of his academic path.
The collaborative venture between Hunter and Rockefeller will provide Hunter undergraduate students with access to facilities at both Hunter and Rockefeller. In addition, undergraduate students will have the opportunity to work closely with Rockefeller graduate students.
The intersection of public school meets private education is precisely the newness Jarvis
wants to bring to Hunter with his program to support underrepresented students in science.
The scientist is no stranger to intersectionality.
The father of two is of mixed-ancestry, a blend of African, Native American and European. As a native New Yorker, Jarvis lived in Harlem and in the Bronx and was raised by his single mother –– Jarvis is one of four children. As a poor inner-city child, he has had his share of disappointments, namely that of his homeless father who was shot and killed. Jarvis understands the inherent setbacks of an inner-city student.
Underrepresented individuals constitute 36% of students enrolled in Hunter’s Psychology department, of those about 52% are African-American according to the school’s Institutional Research Department.
Jarvis is the first Head of Laboratory at Rockefeller University throughout its 120 years of existence and while he is getting used to breaking ground on several issues, he acknowledges some of his counterparts, while amenable, experience a slight learning curve when it comes to race and its impact on academia.
“Even when I first went to Duke University, in talking to the faculty there — I hate to say this but no matter how open-minded and color blind people want to be or can be if they haven’t experienced it it’s something that is hard for them to understand,” says Jarvis.
As a person of color, Jarvis feels like he can bring diversity to all the institutions he is and has been associated with including the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute of which Jarvis is an investigator.
Throughout his career he has always touted the advice of his mother, “‘It doesn’t matter what you do, what’s most important [is] that what you do, you do it well.’”
Jarvis was inducted into Hunter’s Hall of Fame in 2002.
