Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs Honored GIDP Faculty Dr. Leslie P. Tolbert, a faculty member at the University of Arizona since 1987, is a Regents’ Professor in the Arizona Research Laboratories Division of Neurobiology with a joint appointment in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy. She became Vice President for Research, Graduate Studies, and Economic Development in July 2005. She has been involved with Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs (GIDPs) since she arrived at the University. In 1987-1997, she was a member of the executive committee of the campus-wide Committee on Neuroscience, 60 faculty members who offer the GIDP in Neuroscience, and from 1997 to 2004, she served as Chair of that GIDP. She also has been a member of the steering committee for the Program in Applied Mathematics since 1998. She also has served also as a member of the Executive Committee for the Center for Insect Science, home of the GIDP in Insect Science. She was a founding member of the University’s GIDP Advisory Council (GIDPAC) from 1999-2005, chairing it in 1999 and again in 2001. Dr. Tolbert received her A.B. in applied mathematics from Radcliffe College (Harvard University) in 1973 and her Ph.D. in anatomy from the Division of Medical Sciences of Harvard University in 1978. Following postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, she served on the faculty at Georgetown University’s School of Medicine for five years before moving to Arizona. She leads a research group that studies mechanisms underlying the important role of sensory input in guiding the development of sensory areas of the brain, carrying out research in experimentally advantageous insect model systems. As a faculty member, Dr. Tolbert has taught undergraduate and graduate students, and has received Mortar Board Senior Honor Society and Outstanding Honors Faculty teacher awards. Now, with Graduate College Dean and Director of GIDPs Andrew Comrie, she oversees all of the University’s graduate programs. Outside of the university, Dr. Tolbert is a member of the state-wide Flinn/Battelle Bioscience Steering Committee, the Governor’s Council on Innovation, and several boards, including those of the Arizona Center for Innovation, the Arizona Arts, Sciences, and Technology Academy, the Critical Path Institute, and the Large Binocular Telescope. She served as president of the North American Association of Neuroscience Departments and Programs in 2002-2003 and currently is president of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences and a councilor of the Society for Neuroscience. She sits on the editorial board of Chemical Senses and was an associate editor of The Journal of Comparative Neurology from 2001 to 2005. She has served on numerous panels of the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, and is involved in outreach in the community and in public schools.