"Dreams Taking Flight"

Erich Jarvis, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center

Looking back, there were plenty of reasons for Erich Jarvis not to succeed. He was raised among the working poor in Harlem, where the seductions and temptations of the street run rampant. He had family members on drugs, in prison, shot--his father even slid into schizophrenia and moved to a cave in a New York City park. Despite this prescription for a troubled life, Erich Jarvis did not give in to the temptations in his path. Nor did he wind up on the street, or in prison, or in an early grave. Far from it, in fact. For Jarvis also had people in his family who broke the cycle of poverty--people who instilled in him the need and the desire to succeed. Jarvis became one of just 52 African-Americans out of more than 4,300 biologists to earn a Ph.D. in 1995. Today, he runs a $1-million-a-year laboratory at Duke University Medical Center, leading a team of researchers on a cutting-edge quest to understand how songbirds learn to sing. At the age of 38, when most scientists are beginning to make their mark, Jarvis is already a star--he is a world-renowned neurobiologist who recently received the National Science Foundation's highest honor, the Alan T. Waterman Award, which also carries a $500,000 grant. Clearly Jarvis beat the odds.

You won't want to miss his story of perseverance and inspiration.

(Biography adapted from Bill Morris' article, "His Dreams Took Flight" that appeared in the February 16, 2003 issue of Parade Magazine.)