Mary Harrington, Ph.D., is a chronobiologist who trained with Dr. Ben Rusak while working toward her Ph.D. from Dalhousie University in Halifax Nova Scotia (1986). She then took a position teaching at Smith College, the largest liberal arts women’s college in the US. Mary is now the Tippit Professor in Life Sciences at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, as well as an associate member of the Neuroscience and Behavior Program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Mary teaches undergraduate courses in biological rhythms, Alzheimer’s disease, and experimental methods in neuroscience.

Her chronobiology research has focused on negative health impacts associated with disruption of circadian rhythms in Alzheimer’s disease, as well as plasticity in entrainment, effects of aging on the circadian system, and coupling among hepatocytes. She recently developed methods for measurement of organ-specific circadian gene expression rhythms in freely behaving mice.  She has published a textbook entitled “The Design of Experiments in Neuroscience” (third edition, Cambridge University Press, 2020). Her research has been externally funded since 1988, including a FIRST and RCDA award from NIH, as well as RUI awards from NSF. Mary has received the Sherrerd prize for Distinguished Teaching (2007), has served as the President of the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (2006). She has served as the Director of the Neuroscience Program at Smith College (2014-2021) and as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for Biological Rhythms (2020-2025).