Academics

Chris Ciarleglio is a neurobiologist and educator teaching at Holy Cross High School in Waterbury, CT, and in the Summer Programs at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. He is the founding director of the Science Academy at Holy Cross.

Dr. "Ciar" (pronounced "char"), as he's better known, received a bachelor of arts in Biology with a minor in Ancient History from Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA.  There, he worked with Kathleen K. Siwicki, Ph.D. on assessing the effects of exercise on new brain cell formation in young hamsters.  After college, he attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN through the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, eventually joining the Neuroscience Graduate Program in the Vanderbilt School of Medicine where he studied the multidisciplinary nature of circadian rhythms (circuitry, molecular, and behavior) in rodents and humans in the lab of Douglas G. McMahon, Ph.D.  During this time, he also worked closely with fellow circadian biologists Carl Johnson, Ph.D., Karen Gamble, Ph.D. (now Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology at the University of Alabama - Birmingham), and geneticist Marshall Summar, M.D. (now Chief Executive Officer of Uncommon Cures) on identifying novel mutations in human clock genes.  Dr. Ciarleglio defended his dissertation, titled Neural Circuitry, Behavioral Correlates and Genetic Organization of the Mammalian Circadian Clock in 2009, and was a finalist in 2010 for the Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Behavioral Neuroscience from the Society for Neuroscience.  The highlight of this work involved the imprinting effects of light on nervous system development and behavior in mice (Ciarleglio et al., 2011.  Nat. Neurosci. 14(1): 25-27).  After receiving his Ph.D., Dr. Ciarleglio did a brief postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Marshall Summar at Vanderbilt, which was interrupted by Dr. Summar's unexpected move to Children’s National Hospital (Washington, DC) to serve as Chief of Genetics and Metabolism.  After this experience in molecular genetics, he resumed a position as a postdoctoral associate in Dr. McMahon’s lab studying the influence of serotonin on circadian development in the mouse.  Concurrently, Dr. Ciarleglio served as Assistant Director of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute under Mark Wallace, Ph.D., wherein he was the director of the VBI’s outreach and education programs.  This position included responsibilities as the Program Director of a large ARRA grant for the creation of a neuroscience exhibit for the Nashville public, dubbed Brain Matters. For this and his outreach to schools in Nashville, TN, the Vanderbilt Neuroscience Graduate Program was awarded the 2012 Program of the Year honor by the Society for Neuroscience.

In July of 2011, Dr. Ciarleglio concluded his terms in these roles and accepted a postdoctoral fellowship with Carlos Aizenman, Ph.D. at Brown University, where he studied the development of circuits and neuronal cell types in the frog tadpole tectum until 2015.

Ultimately, Dr. Ciarleglio's research interests lie in how environmental factors like daily light cycle interact with the genome to imprint behavioral and molecular traits. His primary expertises are in circadian and developmental neurobiology and mental health.

Dr. Ciarleglio is a published illustrator and has been known to dabble in 3D computer animation and video editing.

In August of 2015, Dr. Ciar left higher education to pursue experience in secondary education, and he spent a year in the Science Department of The Gunnery (now called The Frederick Gunn School) in Washington, CT where he taught all levels of biology.  He then spent 3 years living in Baltimore, MD, where he taught biology and neurobiology at Gilman School.  During that time, Dr. Ciar was a member of the Board of Directors at Holy Cross (2017-2019). He spent 3 more years as Director of the Albertus Magnus Institute for Life Sciences and as Chair of Science at Morris Catholic High School in Denville, NJ.

In the summer of 2022, he returned home to Waterbury, CT, to take on the challenge of establishing an elite liberal arts academy at his alma mater (Class of 2000). In addition to teaching a regular course load of biology and other sciences, he serves as the founding Director of the Science Academy at Holy Cross.

Dr. Ciar is also the founder and managing member of SynapticPub, LLC, an educational publishing and consulting company based in Connecticut.

Dr. Ciarleglio comes from a large family of proud Crusader alumni: his father is Jerry Ciarleglio `72, who served as a member of the English Department, Assistant Director of Students, Football and Track coach, and later Athletic Director at Holy Cross from 1989 until his retirement in 2020; his brother Adam Ciarleglio is Class of 2001; and his twin sisters, are Sarah Roy and Kate Ciarleglio `08, the former of whom served on the Holy Cross science faculty from 2013-2023.

Dr. Ciar lives just off campus with his wife, Meghan, and their twin toddlers, Eliza and Nicholas, who will be in the Holy Cross Class of 2042.

Publications