On December 27, 2017, the life sciences community lost a pioneer in neurobiology and an advocate for equality in science. Dr. Ben A. Barres passed away at the age of 63. His work focused on the critical role of glia (non-neuronal cells) in the brain and how they interface with neurons to maintain cognitive function.

Equally remarkable was the more personal side of his life. In 1997, Dr. Barbara Barres transitioned from female to male and lived the remainder of his life as Ben Barres. I read a number of the articles that Dr. Barres wrote and came across one that particularly caught my attention. In 2006 in response to several statements blaming gender imbalance in STEM fields on women’s innate in-aptitude, Ben wrote a Commentary in Nature that touched on his experience as a female scientist versus how he was treated as a male scientist. (Dr. Barres makes many very interesting points in the article, so I would encourage anyone to read it.) Prior to transitioning, he was often dismissed or interrupted but had a completely different experience as a male scientist. Dr. Barres even recounted that he overheard a colleague praising a seminar he gave, and adding that his work was “much better than his sister’s”¹. The colleague was unaware that the research was the same and that he was talking about the same person. What a unique perspective to have been the one in the position of discrimination and then to be removed from it.