ScienceMakers Toolkit Manual - The History Makers

ScienceMakers
Spotlight: Joanne Berger-Sweeney
Full Name: Joanne Eileen Berger-Sweeney
Born: September 21, 1958
Place: Los Angeles, CA
Parents: Arminta Sweeney
Paul Sweeney
Spouse: Urs Berger
Education: Morningside High School – Englewood, CA (1975)
Wellesley College - Wellesley, MA (B.A. Psychobiology, 1979)
University of California at Berkeley (Master of Public Health, 1981)
Johns Hopkins University – Baltimore, MD
(Ph.D. Neurotoxicology, 1989)
Type of Science: Neurobiology
Achievements: National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award
Researches the neurobiology of learning, memory and developmental
disorders
Biography
Joanne Eileen Berger-Sweeney was born on September 21, 1958 in Los Angeles, California
to Paul and Arminta Sweeney. She attended Morningside High School in Englewood, California,
graduating in 1975. Berger-Sweeny then attended Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts
outside of Boston, where she received her B.A. degree in psychobiology in 1979. Berger-Sweeney
then earned her Master of Public Health degree at the University of California at Berkeley in 1981.
She remained in California for the following four years, where she worked as an environmental
engineer. In 1989, Berger-Sweeney completed her doctoral studies, earning her Ph.D. degree in
neurotoxicology from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. This accomplishment
opened the door for her to accept a postdoctoral position at the Institute Nationale de Sante et Recherche
Medicale in Paris, France.
After a two-year stint in Paris, Berger-Sweeney joined the faculty of her alma mater, Wellesley
College, in 1991, where she was a key player in creating and growing the college’s neuroscience
degree program. Berger-Sweeney went on to become the Allene Lummis Russell Professor in Neuroscience,
as well as Wellesley’s Associate Dean. Berger-Sweeney also served as the director of the
Society for Neuroscience’s Minority Neuroscience Fellowship Program.
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