biology

Tim Stearns

Tim Stearns is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tim Stearns rather than just read about it. In short: Tim Stearns (born 1961 in Manhasset, New York) is an American scientist and university administrator. He is a Professor and Dean of the graduate school at The Rockefeller University, where he is Head of the Laboratory of Cellular Dynamics.

Key takeaways

Tim Stearns belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tim Stearns to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tim Stearns from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tim Stearns (born 1961 in Manhasset, New York) is an American scientist and university administrator. He is a Professor and Dean of the graduate school at The Rockefeller University, where he is Head of the Laboratory of Cellular Dynamics. Stearns was formerly the Frank Lee and Carol Hall Professor in the Department of Biology at Stanford University, with appointments in the Department of Genetics and the Cancer Center in the Stanford Medical School. Stearns served as chair of the Department of Biology at Stanford, 2014-2020, as well as Acting Dean of Research and Senior Associate Vice Provost of Research. He also chaired the 52nd Faculty Senate, 2019-2020. Stearns was an HHMI Professor 2002-2024, and is a member of JASON, a scientific advisory group. He has served on the editorial boards of The Journal of Cell Biology, Genetics and Molecular Biology of the Cell.

Education Stearns received his B.S. in genetics from Cornell University and did his undergraduate thesis work in the lab of Tom Fox on nuclear control of mitochondrial function in yeast. He received his Ph.D. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His Ph.D. advisor at MIT was David Botstein, and the title of his thesis was "Genetic analysis of the yeast microtubule cytoskeleton." Stearns' thesis identified exceptions to the genetic complementation test that were useful for defining genetic interactions and for the first time used the term synthetic lethality in the modern sense of two non-lethal mutations resulting in lethality in the double mutant. Stearns credits Botstein with instilling in him a commitment to teaching, and the belief that teaching and research go hand-in-hand.

Professional career Stearns is known for his work on problems in cell biology and developmental biology, with a focus on the structure and function of the centrosome and cilium of eukaryotic cells. He was a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellow with Marc Kirschner at UCSF, where he published work on gamma-tubulin and in vitro reconstitution of the centrosome. Stearns was a faculty member in the Department of Biology at Stanford University 1993-2022, before moving to Rockefeller University. His major research accomplishments include the identification and characterization of new members of the tubulin superfamily of proteins, elucidation of mechanisms of centrosome duplication, and identification of properties of the primary cilium. Stearns served on the NIH NCSD review panel, chairing the panel 2019-21. Stearns has also been active in undergraduate and graduate education, being named an HHMI Professor in 2002, and has chaired the Education committees of the American Society for Cell Biology and the Genetics Society of America. He created a pre-grad program at Stanford to train the next generation of leaders in biology research through close interaction with faculty members in course work, research and advising. Stearns taught the Yeast Genetics course at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and has also taught laboratory workshops in South Africa, Chile, Ghana, and Tanzania. Stearns is an advisor to the US government on science and technology matters. He was a member of the Defense Science Study Group, and is a current member of JASON, an independent scientific advisory group to the US that provides expertise on problems related to national security. He served on the Science and Technology Committees of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and SLAC and been a member of working groups for PCAST and the Defense Science Board.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tim Stearns

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tim Stearns claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tim Stearns before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tim Stearns ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tim Stearns

In research: Tim Stearns appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tim Stearns in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tim Stearns is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1961 births, American cell biologists, American geneticists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tim Stearns outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tim Stearns in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tim Stearns means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tim Stearns out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tim Stearns in simple terms?

Why does Tim Stearns matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tim Stearns?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tim Stearns.