Joseph S. Takahashi, Ph.D. is the Loyd B. Sands Distinguished Chair in Neuroscience, an Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Dr. Takahashi joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2009, and prior to that was a faculty member in the Department of Neurobiology at Northwestern University from 1983 to 2009. Dr. Takahashi utilizes forward genetics and positional cloning in the mouse as a tool for discovery of genes underlying neurobiology and behavior, and his discovery of the mouse and human clock genes led to a description of a conserved circadian clock mechanism in animals. He is the author of more than 290 scientific publications and the recipient of many awards including the Honma International Prize in Biological Rhythms Research in 1986, W. Alden Spencer Award in Neuroscience from Columbia University in 2001, and Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from the Sleep Research Society in 2012. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000, a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2003, and a Member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2014.