Academic Appointments:

Professor, Biology Department, Brooklyn College, The City University of New York

Faculty, Biology (Evolution, Ecology and Behavior) and Psychology PhD Programs, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York

Co-Founder and Vice-Director Brooklyn College Cancer Center (2020-2025)

Degree(s)

Ph.D. (Zoology) University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA
M.S. (Zoology), University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

Research Focus:

My work with the Cancer Center, including my role as Co-Founder, is deeply personal. As a two-time breast cancer survivor, I’ve experienced firsthand the importance of cutting-edge treatment and compassionate care. After being diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer—one that often affects younger women—I was fortunate to receive Herceptin through a groundbreaking clinical trial. When I faced a second diagnosis in 2023, I received excellent care, this time from teams at Maimonides Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Since 2004, I’ve been actively involved in cancer outreach and advocacy. I bring that passion and experience to the Cancer Center, where my work focuses on educational programming for Brooklyn College students, community engagement, and patient advocacy. One of my key initiatives has been the development of certificate programs—such as the Lay Health Navigation course in partnership with Tisch Mount Sinai Cancer Center—that equip students with the tools to support their communities. As a survivor, I’m also frequently invited to share my story through public speaking.

In my academic and scientific life, I am a neuroethologist studying the evolution of brain and behavioral complexity in marine animals. I’m especially interested in learning and memory—why some evolutionary lineages develop large, complex brains, while others do not.

My research focuses on cephalopod mollusks, such as octopuses, cuttlefish, and the Chambered Nautilus. Cephalopods are remarkable: they have the largest brains of any invertebrates (scaled relative to body size, comparable to vertebrates), and they exhibit sophisticated behaviors. The Nautilus, in particular, serves as a living model of an ancient evolutionary state, helping us trace how learning, memory, and sensory systems have developed over time.

In my laboratory, I conduct comparative studies to identify which features of cephalopod brain function are truly shared through ancestry (homologous) and which evolved independently (analogous). This work deepens our understanding of how complex behaviors emerge across different branches of the evolutionary tree.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of mentoring 10 graduate students and nearly 100 undergraduate researchers, helping shape the next generation of scientists.

Selected Publications (gap in publications is due to cancer treatment from Feb 2023-May 2025):

1. Editor’s Choice in Health Education Research, October 2025:Mikhalya Brown, Tatiana Ramirez, Maryam Mohammed-Norgan, Ana Bartolomé, Jennifer Basil, Lina Jandorf, Lay health navigators: an initiative to navigate community members into lung cancer screening, Health Education Research, Volume 40, Issue 5, October 2025, cyaf034, https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyaf034
   This manuscript is the result of a BCCC-CURE collaboration with Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai. Brooklyn College students were trained as Lay Health Navigators at Mt. Sinai to guide community members into lung-cancer screenings.
2. #Lewandowski, N. and J. Basil (Under review). Mating in Nautiluses: The topography of attraction to odor of the opposite sex.  Int. J. Ethology.
3. #Barord, G., Ju, #Cheng Hui, *Derman, R., *Vargas, T, and J. Basil. (Under review) Dual memory streams in Chambered Nautilus: Beacon homing overshadows route learning in a spatial task. Ethology.
4. #Zartarian, M. and J. Basil (in revision). “Environmentally Relevant Levels of Ethinyl Estradiol Increase Speed of Learning and Length of Retention in an Associative Task in 3-spined Sticklebacks.” Aquatic Toxicology.
5. #Ashfaq, M., #Lewandowski, N. and J. Basil. Endogenous circadian rhythms in activity in the Chambered Nautilus. Ethology, Submitted.
6. #Lewandowski, N. and J. Basil. (In preparation) Mating in Oval Squids: Habitat preference for courtship displays.
7. #Barord, G. J., *Beydoun, M., *Bruce, S., *Li, V., Ward, P. D., & Basil, J. (2021). Foraging and scavenging in Nautilus (Nautilus sp.) L.(Cl. Cephalopoda). Marine and Freshwater Behaviour and Physiology, 54(5-6), 241-261
8. Basil, J. and R Crook. (2017) Learning and Memory in the Living Fossil, the Chambered Nautilus.  In, Physiology of Molluscs, A.S. Saleuddin and S. T. Mukai, eds.  Apple Academic Press.
9. *Shomrat, T., Turchetti-Maia, A. L., Stern-Mentch, N., Basil, J. A., & Hochner, B. (2016). The vertical lobe of cephalopods: an attractive brain structure for understanding the evolution of advanced learning and memory systems. Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 201(9), 947-956.
10. Fiorito, G., Affuso, A., Anderson, D. B., Basil, J., Bonnaud, L., Botta, G…. (2015) & Guidelines for the Care and Welfare of Cephalopods in Research -A consensus based on an initiative by CephRes, FELASA and the Boyd Group. Laboratory Animals 49 (2 Suppl):1-90 · September 2015
11. Fiorito, G., Affuso, A., Anderson, D. B., Basil, J., Bonnaud, L., Botta, G…. & (2014) Cephalopods in neuroscience: regulations, research and the 3Rs. Invertebrate Neuroscience, 14 (1): 13-36.

Recent Funding:

• Binational Israel-USA Foundation: “Functional mapping of learning-induced activity in the CNS of Nautilus, an ancient cephalopod” PI (Dr Binyamin Hochner, CoPI).
• National Science Foundation: “Developing a STEM Curriculum for Early College Programs: A High School To College Continuum.” Co-PI with Chaya Gurwitz, Sophia P. Perdikaris, Theodore Raphan and Elizabeth I Sklar (Brooklyn College).