Cabot Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology Markus Meister was granted tenure by President Neil L. Rudenstine in January.

In an interview last week, Meister expressed enthusiasm about receiving tenure and said, "It's nice to get positive feedback on what we've done over six or seven years."

Moors Cabot Professor of Biology and Chair of Molecular and Cellular Biology Richard M. Losick said in an interview with The Crimson earlier this month that promotions in his department are rare.

Only 30 percent of tenure offers made by the University in 1995-96 were to its own junior faculty, Losick said.

Meister's laboratory research focuses on how systems of neurons process information.

His laboratory specifically studies how the vertebrate retina takes in visual information, processes and transforms this information and then processes electrical signals which serve as input to the brain.

They are currently trying to figure out how the features of a visual image are encoded in the spike trains that retinal ganglion cells send to the brain.

Meister's research has been published in Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, two of the top scientific magazines in the nation.

The multi-talented members of Meister's lab built some of the high-tech instruments needed for the experiments by themselves.

Meister said that he and some of the other researchers have backgrounds in physics which are "helpful in building our own equipment and nice to have."

He also notes that being able to build equipment that is not yet on the market helps keep them one step ahead of the competition.

Furthermore, Meister said that working in the laboratory is an on-going learn- ing experience because the laboratory members"teach each other and me too."

Ironically, Meister actually started outstudying physics rather than biology.

At an early age, Meister was exposed to physicsby his physicist father. He also did graduate workin physics at the California Institute ofTechnology.

However, Meister said he eventually became"disenchanted" with the theory-based physics fieldand looked for one that was more hands-on.

Professor of Molecular and Cellular BiologyHoward C. Berg, who was then at Caltech, sparkedMeister's interest in the biologicalsciences--specifically in the subject of bacterialmotion.