An MIT faculty member for more than 40 years, Tonegawa was a renowned molecular biologist who wielded his keen insight in a variety of fields, including immunology and neuroscience. In the early 1980s, Tonegawa discovered how the immune system generates its incredible diversity of antibodies — a breakthrough that earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1987.

Following that landmark achievement, he turned his attention to neuroscience, where his work has helped to reveal how the brain stores memories as traces called “engrams.”

Tonegawa also served as the founding director of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and director of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute of Japan, and was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.