Erik Jorgensen is a Distinguished Professor of Biology and a member of the Program in Neuroscience at the University of Utah, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His lab studies the molecular mechanisms of synaptic transmission with a focus on synaptic vesicle fusion and recycling. Jorgensen’s lab uses genetics, biochemistry, light and electron microscopy to investigate neurotransmission, primarily in C. elegans.
Jorgensen has been honored with the Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology, a Humboldt Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation and he was one of the inaugural recipients of the F.R. Lillie Research Innovation Award from the Marine Biological Laboratory and the University of Chicago. Jorgensen has also received several awards for excellence in teaching from the University of Utah.
Jorgensen received his BS from the University of California, Berkeley and his PhD from the University of Washington. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of H. Robert Horvitz at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
