Lily Jan

Lily Yeh Jan (; born January 20, 1947) is a Taiwanese-American neuroscientist. She is the Jack and DeLoris Lange Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, where she collaborates with her husband Yuh Nung Jan as co-principal investigators of the Jan Lab.

Early life, education, and career Lily Yeh was born Yeh Kung-chu (Ye Gongzhu) in Fuzhou, China, to two accountants, Yeh Hong-shu and Lee Chuan-hwa. In 1949, her family moved to Taiwan. She attended a public school, the Taipei First Girls' High School. As a high-school student she was particularly drawn to the field of physics and was inspired by the 1957 Nobel Prize in physics awarded to Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang as well as the experimental physicist Chien Shiung Wu.

She attended National Taiwan University and earned her B.S. in physics in 1968. Her co-mentors for her graduate studies were Jean Paul Revel and Max Delbrück. Upon joining the Delbrück group, Jan was a member of the membrane biology subgroup where she performed challenging experiments in black lipid bilayers in the sub-terranean sub-basement of the electrical engineering building. which were in print by 1976, only nine years after the Jans first met. During this time, the Jans would first observe that a male mutant ShakerKS133 larvae exhibited an exceptionally large excitatory response after motor stimulation. Unraveling whether the mutant phenotype was linked to the nerve or muscle of Shaker mutant larvae would demarcate the beginning of the Jans' investigations on ion channels.

Jan and her husband joined the faculty as assistant professors at UCSF in 1979 where they set up a joint lab. The two investigators only got $15,000 each in start-up money and 1,000 ft2 to share to set up their lab, however have shared they were drawn to UCSF by the people and the atmosphere. The development subgroup led by Yuh Nung has been engaged with questions surrounding dendrite morphogenesis.

Awards

Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science (2017) Gruber Prize in Neuroscience (2012) Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences (2011) Albert and Ellen Grass Lecture, Society for Neuroscience (2010) Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2010) Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience, Society for Neuroscience (2009) Elected member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007) Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America Presidential Award (2006) National Institute of Health MERIT Award (2006) Distinguished Alumni Award, California Institute of Technology (2006) K. S. Cole Award, Biophysical Society (2004) Stephen W. Kuffler Lecture, Harvard Medical School (1999) Harvey Lecture, New York (1998) Elected member, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (1998) Elected member, National Academy of Sciences (1995) 38th Faculty Lecturer Award, University of California, San Francisco (1995) W. Alden Spencer Award and Lectureship, Columbia University (1988) Klingstein Fellowship Award (1983-1983) Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (1977-1979)

Personal and family life In 1967, she Jan traveled to Shitou, Taiwan for a hiking trip to celebrate her college graduation. This trip resulted in her meeting Yuh-Nung Jan and the beginning of their relationship. In 1971, they married with a simple ceremony in a Los Angeles courthouse followed by a celebration camping and hiking in Yosemite.

They had their first child together a daughter, Emily Huan-Ching Jan, on August 6, 1977. On November 7, 1984, their son Max Huang-Wen Jan was born and was named after Max Delbrück.

Selected publications