Matthew Zipple, postdoctoral fellow in neurobiology and behavior in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) and former Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow, is a finalist for the Blavatnik Regional Award in Life Sciences. 

Credit: Chris Kitchen/for the College of Arts and Sciences

Blavatnik Awards for Postdoctoral Excellence, given each year by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences, honor outstanding postdoctoral researchers in physical sciences and engineering, chemical sciences and life sciences. Awardees and finalists were honored on Oct. 6 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Finalists in each category receive $10,000 in unrestricted funds.

Zipple won a place as a finalist for his “strikingly different approach” to life science research, the award citation said, “challenging traditional laboratory paradigms by rewilding lab mice to demonstrate how molecular aging, complex emotions and physiology are all influenced by naturalistic environments and social dynamics, a line of research that questions decades of experimental convention in biomedical science.” 

As a Klarman Fellow, Zipple introduced ground-breaking methods studying rewilded mice in open-air enclosures instead of cages. Living in an enclosed field just off Cornell’s campus, mice can move freely, burrow and climb, find their own food and navigate weather, seasons and each other.

Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.