Mary Hynes, who returns to Stanford this fall along with her husband, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, has had a distinguished career as a neuroscientist. She is a leading expert on the development of dopaminergic neurons, critical nerve cells whose degeneration causes the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont and a PhD in neuroscience from the University of North Carolina. She held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Columbia University and performed additional postdoctoral work at Genentech. She then held positions at Genentech and at Renovis, before joining Stanford in 2003 as a senior research scientist.
In an email interview with Stanford, she discussed her future plans and her roles as a scientist, a presidential spouse and a mother of a Stanford undergraduate. This is an edited transcript.
What drew you to neuroscience?
I started as a psychology major interested in behavior and thought initially that I wanted to be a clinical psychologist. However, as an undergrad I had an amazing professor who taught a yearlong course on experimental neurobiology that inspired me. It was because of her that I decided to become an experimental neuroscientist.
What do you find most satisfying about it?
Like many scientists, what is most satisfying to me is the discovery of something new: You ask a question, and when the answer is clear, interesting and novel—well, there is nothing better than that.
You will be bringing your lab back to Stanford. How are you feeling about returning to the Farm?
Great; it will be fabulous. Stanford is an incredible place to do science, and I am anxious to get started.
Obviously it will be different because of Marc’s role and the presence of your daughter, Ella, as a Stanford freshman. What challenges do you anticipate? Will you have a different set of goals this time?
Well, funnily enough, our daughter was present on campus last time, too, in the Bing Nursery School and then at various camps. It will be fantastic to have her on campus, but of course we plan to let her have her own college life, as our sons did when they were far away at college. We have many friends who are either faculty at Stanford or who live nearby and have had children at Stanford, and it is a well-worn and happy path.
As for how it will be to be back with Marc’s new role: Yes, that will be different, but also very similar to his and my role at Rockefeller for the past five years. I think it works out really well. At Rockefeller, I was totally immersed in the day-to-day workings of the university, its science and culture, but I also got to experience the university from a 10,000-foot level. Both are interesting, and each benefits the other.
How do you and Marc balance your working lives with the demands of family?
To be honest, my career has taken a backseat to the family for the past 15 years, and I made a conscious decision to do this. In 2001, when our daughter was 3 and our boys 8 and 10, I was offered a tenure-track position in neurology at Stanford, which I seriously considered but ultimately declined. I decided instead to run a small lab and work part time to make room for the kids and family. I was still working, but with a completely flexible schedule. I had time to be with the kids when they weren’t in school. I was also very active in their schools, particularly at the Nueva School in Hillsborough.
As our kids have gotten older, the fact that Marc and I are both scientists has made it really fun to discuss science with them—they have all spent time in biology labs.
I think the fact that I am a scientist allows me to totally understand how busy Marc is at times. To succeed in science at the highest levels takes an incredible amount of determination and perseverance.
What are you grateful for, and what still feels unfulfilled?
Frankly, I am grateful for everything; nothing feels unfulfilled. All future endeavors and achievements are just icing on the cake.
