Mary Brazier
| Mary A.B. Brazier | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 18, 1904 Weston-super-Mare, England |
| Died |
May 14, 1995 (aged 90) Falmouth, Massachusetts |
| Fields | Biology |
| Institutions | MIT |
| Alma mater | University of London |
| Known for | Electron microscopy |
| Children | Oliver Gidden Brazier (1935–2001) |
Mary "Mollie" Agnes Burnston Brazier (1904–1995) was a prominent neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard, MIT, and UCLA.
She was born in Weston-super-Mare, England in 1904 and died in Falmouth, MA in 1995. She was the second of two children (she had an older brother) in a Quaker family.
She attended school at Sidcot and earned a Bachelor of Science from Bedford College of the University of London.
She received a Ph.D in physiology and biochemistry from the University of London in 1930, began neuroscience research at Maudsley Hospital, London, and in 1940 came to Boston on a Rockefeller fellowship. She remained at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for twenty years. In 1961, she moved to the Brain Research Institute at UCLA until her retirement. She was internationally known as an outstanding neuroscientist, historian, author, and editor.[1]
Brazier made many fundamental contributions to the study of EEG changes in anesthesia and was one of the pioneers in applying computer analysis to EEG signals. She also published in history of science.
In the 1950s she was one of the people, together with Jasper, Gastaut, and Fessard to promote the idea of the International Brain Research Organization (IRBO) and assisted in its founding by enlisting UNESCO support. She was the sixth secretary general, and first woman in that role at IBRO, beginning in 1978 and remaining in that position until 1983.[2]
She was editor-in-chief of Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology Electroencephalography_and_Clinical_Neurophysiology from 1974 to 1984.[3]
Brazier was the author of almost 250 articles and books. Her papers are kept at the UCLA Special Collections library.[4]
In popular culture
She is mentioned as a New Year's Eve 1954 dinner guest of Avis DeVoto in As Always, Julia.[5]
Selected Books and Articles
- "Bibliography of electoencephalography, 1875 - 1948." EEG and Clinical Neurophysiolohy (1950). Supplement 1: 1-178.
- "Neural nets and integration." In Richter, K. (ed.)m Perspectives in Neuropsychiatry (1950). London, UK: HK Lewis. pp. 35 - 45.
- The Electrical Activity of the Nervous System. London, UK: Pitman. 1951.
- "Some uses of computers in experimental neurology." Experimental Neurology (1960). 2: 123 - 143.
- A History of Neurophysiology in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: From Concept to Experiment. New York: Raven, 1984.
- A History of Neurophysiology in the Nineteenth Century. New York, Raven, 1988.
References
Sources
- Barlow, John, Naquet, Roberts, and van Duijn, Hans. "In memoriam: Mary A.B. Brazier (1904 - 1995)." Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology (1996). 98: 1 - 4.
- Marshall, Louise. "Early History of IBRO: The Birth of Organized Neuroscience." Neuroscience Vol. 72, No. I, pp. 283-306, 1996.
- Parlee, M. B. 2006. Brazier, Mary A. B.. Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science.
- Reardon, Joan. As Always, Julia. Houghton Mifflin, 2010.
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