Lynn Cooley was appointed Vice Provost for Postdoctoral Affairs in February 2021. She is the C.N.H. Long Professor of Genetics and Professor of Cell Biology and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and has served as the Dean of the Graduate School since 2014. As Vice Provost, she focuses on increasing Yale’s capacity to recruit and train outstanding postdoctoral trainees through inclusive hiring practices, expanded mentorship opportunities, and enhanced support for their educational and research efforts.
Cooley received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from UT Austin in 1984 for dissertation research on tRNA transcription and processing conducted in the laboratory of Dieter Söll at Yale University. After postdoctoral training at the Carnegie Institution for Science, she joined the faculty of the Genetics Department at Yale School of Medicine in 1989. Cooley’s current research is focused on understanding the function of intercellular bridges that connect germline cells during their development into eggs or sperm and on the regulated production of unexpectedly long proteins in specific tissues. Cooley directed Yale’s Combined Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) from 2001–2014.