Profile of Mary E. Hatten

Abstract

Soon after Mary Hatten became the first female professor at New York City’s Rockefeller University in 1992, she gave a talk to the university’s board of directors about her life’s work on neuron migration during brain development. David Rockefeller, the university’s benefactor and honorary chairman, was there and, after listening attentively, asked, “But why would the young neuron want to leave the place where it was born?” Mary E. Hatten. Image courtesy of Mario Morgado (photographer). More than 25 years later, Hatten is working toward a complete answer. The Frederick P. Rose professor and head of the laboratory of developmental neurobiology at Rockefeller has spent her career on a methodical search for clues. Hatten’s Inaugural Article (1) furnishes one piece of the puzzle by solving a mystery about how an adhesion protein binds to glial cells to allow neurons to pull themselves along during central nervous system development. Throughout Hatten’s career, she has earned accolades and awards for her often-groundbreaking work. She received the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience Investigator Award, the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, the Cowan-Cajal Award for outstanding work in developmental neuroscience, and the Ralph W. Gerard Prize of the Society for Neuroscience for lifetime achievement in neuroscience. Hatten was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2017. The 2016 film Hidden Figures brings back memories for Hatten. She grew up in Newport News, Virginia, close to NASA’s Langley Research Center, where much of the movie’s plot unfolds. In high school and college Hatten conducted her own research at Langley during the summers. “I was the only girl,” she says. “And it was exactly like it was portrayed in the movie.” “I loved what I was doing and so just did it, somewhat oblivious to the challenges,” she recalls. “Certainly it’s been frustrating at times. …