Brent R. Stockwell

Sen. Brent Stockwell is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, Professor of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences, and Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology. He is a current Senator representing tenured natural sciences faculty in A&S, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Senate. He served on the Alumni Relations and Campus Planning and Physical Development Committees in the Senate. He has been on the Columbia faculty for 22 years, where he has consistently advocated for improved resources for science. In a series of papers from 2003 to 2012, Professor Stockwell discovered a previously unrecognized form of cell death that he termed ferroptosis. Professor Stockwell has received numerous awards, including being elected to the US National Academy of Medicine, the Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award, the Great Teacher of Columbia College Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates, and the Dean Peter Awn Commitment to the LGBTQ community Faculty Award. He has been in the top 1 percent of highly cited researchers the last six years and was ranked among the top 50 scientists in the world by citations in 2025. He has published >200 scientific articles and received >50 research grants for >$40 million. He has served as Chair of the Educational Policy and Planning Committee in A&S, on the Columbia College and College of General Studies Joint Committee on Instruction, as Chair of the Provost's Advisory Committee on the Libraries Research Subcommittee, and as Chair of the Provost Faculty Advisory Committee. He has a BA in Chemistry and Economics from Cornell and a PhD in Chemistry from Harvard.