Marnie E Halpern

Early life and education Marnie E. Halpern grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Her family was of Jewish descent and left Europe after the Second World War. Her father was a doctor. His practice was located in their house and Halpern helped him from an early age.

Halpern studied at McMaster University and worked as a research assistant at McMaster University Medical Center. She obtained her bachelor's degree in biology in 1981. Working with James R Smiley, she focused on herpes simplex gene regulation. She earned her master's degree in molecular biology in 1984.

In 1994, Halpern joined the Department of Embryology of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Baltimore, Maryland. She was also recruited by Donald D. Brown to become an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Johns Hopkins University. In 2021, she was named the Andrew Thomson, Jr., MD 1946 Professor at Dartmouth College.

In 2024, Halpern signed a faculty letter supporting Dartmouth College president Sian Beilock, who ordered the arrests of 90 students and faculty members nonviolently protesting the Gaza war.