Edward A. Kravitz

With deep sadness, the MBL notes the passing of Edward A. Kravitz on September 21, 2025, at age 92. A pioneering neurobiologist and professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School, Kravitz served on the MBL Board of Trustees (1979-1986 and 1990-95) and was a member of the MBL Society (Corporation) from 1976-2009. He was deeply involved in MBL research and education for decades, particularly as co-director of the Neurobiology course (1975-78) and as a founder of the Summer Program in Neuroscience, Excellence and Success (SPINES). The MBL flag will be lowered in his memory.

Kravitz joined the Harvard faculty in 1960 and almost immediately after spent his first summer at the MBL with Harvard colleagues Stephen Kuffler, David Potter, Edwin Furshpan and others affiliated with Kuffler’s lab. Kuffler was running a Training Program in Neurophysiology at MBL that would be the forerunner of the MBL Neurobiology course, founded in 1970 by John Dowling and Michael Bennett and still running today. Kuffler’s MBL program also anticipated the founding of the world’s first Department of Neurobiology in 1966 at Harvard University.

Trained as a biochemist, Kravitz joined Kuffler and Potter on a project to identify the inhibitory transmitter compound at the lobster neuromuscular junction, work they pursued both at Harvard and at MBL. They eventually showed that GABA was the inhibitory transmitter, with Kravitz providing the unequivocal evidence. Kravitz and his colleague Tony Stretton also established Procion Yellow as the first widely used fluorescent dye for determining neuronal geometry.

In the mid-1970s, Kravitz’s research interests moved to serotonin neurons and how they may be involved in aggressive behavior. His initial studies were in lobster, but he eventually moved to fruit flies for their genetic tractability. Neurobiology students at MBL may well remember Kravitz’s “Fruit Fly Fight Club” and the glass chamber he built for flies to fight in so they could analyze their behavior (which was often quite funny, he wrote in “The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography”).

Throughout his career, Kravitz was devoted to increasing diversity in the sciences and medicine. Alongside his faculty service with MBL Neurobiology, which stretched from the early 1970s to the late 2000s, Kravitz was instrumental in the founding of SPINES at MBL, a course aimed at diversifying neuroscience co-founded by James Townsel and Joe Martinez, Jr., in the early 2000s. Kravitz served on the SPINES faculty and gave the opening lecture for many years, as recently as 2023. He also served variously on the faculty of MBL’s Neural Systems & Behavior course and directed a January course, BUMP Neurobiology (1979-1982).

Kravitz’s wit, intellect, and generosity are legendary at MBL. He will be missed and remembered, especially on the occasion of the Edward Kravitz Lectureship, a lecture he endowed that is presented annually by the Neurobiology course.

Kravitz is survived by his wife, Kathryn, their two sons, David and James, and a granddaughter. A celebration of life is planned for a future date.  

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to support research at the Blavatnik Institute of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Ave., Building C Suite 125, Boston, MA 02115, or the Marine Biological Laboratory, Development Office, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543 (development@mbl.edu). Please mark donations “In memory of Ed Kravitz.”

An obituary published by the Boston Globe is here.