William N. Green, PhD

William N. Green, PhD is a professor of Neurobiology at the University of Chicago, where he has been on the faculty for 28 years. He is an expert on the cell biology of neurons and synapses. His research has focused on neurotransmitter receptor trafficking and modifications involved in synapse formation, plasticity, and diseases. He studies nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain and how nicotine-induced changes in nicotinic receptors are related to nicotine addiction. His lab has also been involved in the development and application of different methods to assay protein post-translational modifications and fluorescent single-molecule and super-resolution microscopy methods. At the University of Chicago, Green co-directs and co-teaches the "Big Problems" course “Drinking Alcohol: Social Problem or Normal Cultural Practice?” to undergraduates and the “Neurons and Glia” course to graduate students and undergraduates in the neurobiology program. He has been on the editorial board of several journals including Scientific Reports, Frontiers in Synaptic Neuroscience, and the Journal of General Physiology, and has reviewed extensively for the NSF and NIH, where he served as a chartered member for three NIH study sections. Green has been active in the mentoring and recruitment of students and scientists at the University of Chicago and the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts where he has spent summers in residence for the past 19 years as a Whitman investigator. In addition to his research at the MBL, he has been the academic advisor for the University of Chicago Undergraduate Metcalf Program for the past three years, chair and member of the Whitman program steering committee, chair and member of the MBL Science Council, a faculty member for the SPINES course and co-organizer of the “SPINES Neuroscience Symposium: Scientific Excellence and Lifelong Mentoring to Increase Diversity” held at the 2015 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting.