Marian Diamond
| Marian C. Diamond | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 26, 1926 Glendale, California |
| Residence | Oakland, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Neuroanatomy |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley |
| Alma mater |
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| Thesis | Functional Interrelationships of the Hypothalamus and the Neurohypophysis (1953) |
| Notable awards | The Distinguished Senior Woman Scholar in America awarded by the American Association of University Women |
| Spouse |
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| Children |
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| Notes | |
Marian Cleeves Diamond, Ph.D. (nee Cleeves, born November 11, 1926) is a professor of anatomy at the University of California, Berkeley who has published research into the neuroanatomy of the forebrain, notably the discovery of the impact of the environment on brain development, the differences between the cerebral cortex of male and female rats, and the likely link between positive thinking and immune health.
Biography
Early life
Marian Cleeves Diamond was born in Glendale, California to Dr. Montague Cleeves and Rosa Marian Wamphler Cleeves as the sixth and last child in the family. Her father was an English physician and her Mother a Latin teacher at Berkeley High School. Diamond grew up in La Crescenta. She was educated with her siblings near home at La Crescenta grammar school, Clark Junior High, Glendale High School and finally Glendale Community College, before going to University of California, Berkeley. She played tennis at Berkeley, earning a letter.[2][3]
Career
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1948, Diamond spent a summer at the University of Oslo, Norway before returning to Berkeley for her graduate studies, the first female graduate student in the department of anatomy.[3] Her doctoral dissertation thesis "Functional Interrelationships of the Hypothalamus and the Neurohypophysis" was published in 1953.[4] During her PhD degree Marian Diamond also began to teach, and teaching became a lifelong passion that has continued well into her eighties. Marian Diamond received her PhD degree in human anatomy.[3]
Personal life
Diamond married Richard Martin Diamond in 1950 and they had four children, Catherine Theresa (1953), Richard Cleeves (1955) Jeff Barja (1958) and Ann (1962). They divorced in 1979 and Diamond married Professor Arne Scheibel in 1982.[2]
Documentary film and web series
My Love Affair with the Brain: The Life and Science of Dr. Marian Diamond [5] is a multipart web series about Dr. Diamond's life as a pioneering woman of science, her curiosity and passion for the human brain, as well as her research and love of teaching. Twelve episodes of the work in progress can be viewed online at Luna Productions, including "The Woman with Einstein's Brain,"[6] "How She Changed the World,"[7] "About Brains and Little Girls," [8] "What Makes a Great Teacher" [9] and others.
Contributions to neuroanatomy
Marian Diamond has made a number of major scientific contributions to anatomical neuroscience. She showed that the structural components of the cerebral cortex can be altered by either enriched or impoverished environments at any age, from prenatal to extremely old age. An enriched cortex shows greater learning capacity, an impoverished, lesser learning capacity.[2]
Diamond demonstrated that the structural arrangement of the male and female cortices is significantly different and can be altered in the absence of sex steroid hormones.[2]
Diamond showed that the dorsal lateral frontal cerebral cortex is bilaterally deficient in the immune deficient mouse and can be reversed with thymic transplants. In humans, cognitive stimulation increases circulating CD4-positive T lymphocytes, supporting the idea that immunity can be voluntarily modulated, in other words, that positive thinking can impact the immune system.[2]
A selected set of Marian Diamond's published books and papers can be found here.[10]
Awards
- Council for Advancement & Support of Education. Wash. D.C. award for California Professor of the Year and National Gold Medalist
- California Biomedical Research Association Distinguished Service Award
- Alumna of the Year—California Alumni Association
- San Francisco Chronicle Hall of Fame
- University Medal, La Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela
- Brazilian Gold Medal of Honor
- Benjamin Ide Wheeler Service Award
- The Distinguished Senior Woman Scholar in America awarded by the American Association of University Women[2]
- Clark Kerr Award for Distinguished Leadership in Higher Education[11]
References
- ↑ Diamond, Marian Cleeves. "Marian Cleeves Diamond". In Squire, Larry Ryan. The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography 6. Society for Neuroscience. pp. 62–94. ISBN 0-12-660301-4. Retrieved 2014-09-24. Autobiography.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Squire, Larry R. (March 2009). The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography Volume 6. Oxford University Press. p. 64. ISBN 9780195380101.
- 1 2 3 Holtz, Debra Levi (December 5, 2010). "Marian Diamond - anatomy professor a YouTube hit". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
- ↑ Diamond, Marian Cleeves (1953). "Functional interrelationships of the hypothalamus and the neurohypophysis". University of California, Berkeley. OCLC 14462278.
- ↑ My Love Affair with the Brain: The Life and Science of Dr. Marian Diamond
- ↑ The Woman with Einstein's Brain, (Episode 3) , Luna Productions,
- ↑ How She Changed the World, (Episode 2),Luna Productions,
- ↑ About Brains and Little Girls, (Episode 5),Luna Productions,
- ↑ What Makes a Great Teacher, (Episode 7) ,Luna Productions,
- ↑ Diamond, Marian,writings /Selected Published Books and Papers by Dr. Marian Diamond, Luna Productions,
- ↑ "History of the Clark Kerr Award" (PDF). Retrieved April 16, 2015.
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