Dr. Robert J. S. Reis attended Harvard College for his undergraduate degree. He then attended the University of Sussex in Brighton, United Kingdom for his Doctor of Philosophy, the highest academic achievement in a field. Dr. Reis received many honors while pursuing his education, including Advanced Placement at Harvard University, and a scholarship to Harvard College. He took part in a National Science Foundation Fellowship and received the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Internship Award from the U.S. Department of Education. In 2023, Dr. Reis was honored by the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences with the Clinical Scientist Award.
Dr. Reis has always considered the universality of aging among animals to be fascinating, and targeting age-associated diseases to be the most effective clinical strategy to improve human health. Of working in geriatrics, Dr. Reis says, “I had the remarkable good fortune to be taken on as a doctoral student by John Maynard Smith, at the time the preeminent researcher in the fields of gerontology and evolution.”
Dr. Robert Reis’s studies of the genetics of aging and longevity have shown that genetic manipulation in a relatively simple animal model, C. elegans, can mimic neurodegenerative diseases and provides a quick and precise system for drug testing and defining mechanisms through which we can prevent or remove protein aggregates.