Ben Barres

To celebrate the representation of the LGBTQ+ community in science, we decided to remember the transgender neuroscientist Ben Barres at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. Ben was born as Barbara and grew up in New York, before turning into an incredibly succesful scientist, mentor and advocate of both the LGBTQ+ community and of women’s rights.

I really appreciate one of his more famous anecdotes, which he picked up from someone in the public after giving a seminar: “Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, but then his work is much better than his sister’s” - not realizing that his ‘sister’ Barbara and Ben were in fact the same person!

In his autobiography he describes growing up and struggling for years with his gender dysphoria (a discrepancy between his experienced gender and that assigned at birth). He further goes into the many scientific discoveries he made at different labs and stages in his life on glial cells, which were considered to be mere ‘support cells’ to the more important neural cells in our brain. Paving the way for many researchers that work on these cells today, whilst emphasizing the struggle for women in science (having experienced both sides, he is the perfect advocate!).

I can strongly recommend reading his book (do let me know if you would like to borrow it!). Very inspiring stuff!