Donald S. Faber

With much sadness, the MBL notes the passing of Donald S. Faber, former chairman of the MBL Science Council and co-director of the Neurobiology course, on April 6, 2025. The MBL flag will be lowered in his honor.

Faber first came to the MBL as a Grass Fellow in 1969, while receiving postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Sir John Eccles at University of Buffalo. He returned to the MBL in the 1990s as a faculty member in the Neurobiology course, and he co-directed the course from 2000-2003. He subsequently became a member of the MBL Science Council (2003-2010) and served as the Council’s chairman from 2008-2010, in which capacity he also became an MBL trustee ex officio. Faber was a trustee of the Grass Foundation from 2005-2009.

He leaves his wife of 60 years, Jo Faber, a retired prosecutor; two daughters, Eve and Amy, and four grandchildren, Jacob, Bella, Lena and Violet. 

A memorial service will be held at the MBL on July 13, 2025, at 11:00 AM in the Meigs Room, Swope Center.

Below is an obituary prepared by Faber’s MBL colleagues, Alberto Pereda and Steve Zottoli.

***

With sadness, the MBL shares the passing of Donald S. Faber, a leader of the field of neuroscience, on April 6, 2025. A faculty member and later Director of the MBL Neurobiology course (2000-2003), and member of the MBL scientific council, Faber was Professor Emeritus in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y.

Donald S. Faber was born March 3, 1943, in Buffalo, NY to Mildred (Mollie) B. (née Brothman) and Gilbert H. Faber. Don attended Kenmore East High School where he met his future wife Jo (née Welch).  He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1964 and a Ph.D. in Physiology from the University at Buffalo in 1968 working in the laboratory of Werner Noell, known for his work on retinal light toxicity. His thesis research work focused on elucidating the cellular source of the electroretinogram b-wave using extracellular field potentials in rabbits. He completed his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Sir John Eccles, who was then at the University at Buffalo. Eccles’ work at the time centered on understanding how cellular networks in the cerebellar cortex influence motor behavior.  It was at Eccles’ laboratory where Don met Henri Korn and conducted research on the frog cerebellum. This collaboration was the beginning of a long, productive scientific relationship that generated a large set of seminal studies on the properties of synaptic transmission in the vertebrate central nervous system.

It was with Eccles that Don had his first association with the MBL where Don conducted a study on the Purkinje cells of Selachian fish as a Grass Fellow. This initial exposure to the vibrant MBL scientific community and the Grass Foundation would later result in his involvement in the Neurobiology course and as a Trustee of the Grass Foundation (2005-2009). 

Don joined Manfred Klee as a Visiting Research Associate, in the Neurobiology Division of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research. Don studied effects of various pharmacological agents on membrane properties of Aplysia neurons and the Mauthner cell (M-cell) of goldfish.

In 1972, Don continued his collaboration with Henri Korn in his first academic position as an Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, University of Cincinnati and as a Visiting Research Associate, Laboratory de Physiologie, Universite de Paris, Faculte de Medicine.  They described a set of interneurons that mediate chemical and electrical inhibition of the M-cell, the latter via a field effect (ephaptic inhibition).

Don returned to Buffalo as Research Scientist at the Research Institute on Alcoholism, N.Y.S. Department of Mental Hygiene (1974-1978), to later join in 1978 the Department of Physiology of the University at Buffalo as an Associate Professor and Director of the Division of Neurobiology. Recognizing the value of animal models to understand fundamental questions of the cellular basis of brain function, Don and Henri Korn co-organized a Satellite Symposium of the XXVIIth International Congress of Physiological Sciences held at Abbey Royaumont in 1977 on the M-cell and other brainstem neurons. This symposium resulted in the publication of “Neurobiology of the Mauthner Cell” in 1978, a book that continues as an important resource on fundamental properties of M-cells. Their laboratories in Buffalo and Paris became centers for the study of the M-cell, an effort that included inhibitory synapses, quantal transmission, spinal circuits and gap junction-mediated electrical transmission. Their enthusiasm for the use of this animal model attracted multiple colleagues such as Antoine Triller, Paul Funch, Joe Fetcho, Charlie Kaars, Jen-Wei Lin, Laura Wolszon, Margie Titmus, and the authors.

In 1992, in a new role for him, Don joined the faculty in the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy in the School of Medicine, MCP Hahnemann (now part of Drexel University College of Medicine) as the William P. Snyder III Professor & Chair of the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy in the School of Medicine. In addition to his research on synaptic transmission he utilized  the M-cell to study the physiological consequences of nerve cell responses to injury and recovery of function after spinal cord injury. In Philadelphia, Don led the department and later the school through a tumultuous period which ended with the association of the school with Drexel.

In 1999 Don joined the faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, where he became Chair of the Department of Neuroscience and Director of the Rose F. Kennedy Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. As chair (1999-2013), Don recruited a cadre of neuroscientists that helped strengthen the Department of Neuroscience founded by Dominick Purpura.  At Einstein, Don’s research transitioned to more behavioral questions, focusing on the analysis of  locomotion in fish and its adaptive behavior.

His professional recognition includes his appointment as a Javits Investigator of the NIH National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke and his election as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1999. Apart from the MBL, Don was active in the Society for Neuroscience, the American Physiological Society, and the State of New York Spinal Cord Injury Research Board

Beyond his scientific brilliance and leadership roles, no real account of Don is complete without mentioning his human qualities. Don was a warm, generous, intellectually curious and socially conscious individual who was deeply committed to the values of social justice. His ability to balance all these facets of his personality made him a unique mentor and friend. He will be sorely missed.

Steve Zottoli and Alberto Pereda