Rate My Professor Elizabeth Bauer

Elizabeth Bauer is Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Biology in the Departments of Biology and Neuroscience & Behavior at Barnard College, Columbia University, a position she has held since her promotion in 2018, following her initial appointment as Assistant Professor in 2008. She earned an A.B. in Neuroscience from Amherst College in 1997, graduating magna cum laude with high distinction and receiving the James Olds Memorial Neuroscience Award. Bauer completed her Ph.D. in Neural Science at New York University in 2004, with a dissertation on cellular mechanisms of fear learning in the lateral amygdala. Her postdoctoral training included a fellowship at Yale University from 2004 to 2005 under Glenn Schafe and another at Rutgers University from 2005 to 2008 under Denis Paré, where she investigated amygdala-prefrontal interactions during emotional learning.

Bauer's research centers on the neural mechanisms underlying emotional memory, employing classical fear conditioning to examine how the brain acquires, stores, and expresses fear memories. Her laboratory focuses on extended amygdala circuits, including the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and basolateral amygdala, exploring their roles in anxiety-modulated fear learning, sex differences in threat responses, and serotonin influences. She has authored key publications such as Urien et al., 'Extended amygdala circuits are differentially activated by context fear conditioning in male and female rats' (Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 2021); Bauer, 'Serotonin in fear conditioning processes' (Behavioral Brain Research, 2015); Pelrine et al., '5-HT2C receptors in the BNST are necessary for the enhancement of fear learning by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors' (Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 2016); and a book chapter, 'Behavioral neuroscience of circuits involved in fear processing' in Neurobiology of PTSD (Oxford University Press, 2016). Bauer has received multiple NIH grants as principal investigator, including R15 awards for regulation of fear conditioning by subicular inputs to the BNST (2020–2023, $411,173), modulation by extended amygdala circuits (2016–2019, $410,845), and fear memory by CRF in the amygdala (2011–2014, $392,415). Honors include the Tow Associate Professorship for Distinguished Scholars (2021) and honorable mentions for the Emily Gregory Award (2015, 2018). She teaches molecular and cellular neuroscience courses and has served on committees including Petitions and Academic Standing (2015–2017), Honors (2014–2016), and the Center for Research on Women Advisory Board (2008–present).