Obituaries

Recent articles

Remembering prominent neuroscientists

Ed Kravitz sits at a lab bench with a microscope.

Remembering GABA pioneer Edward Kravitz

The biochemist, who died last month at age 92, was part of the first neurobiology department in the world and showed that gamma-aminobutyric acid is inhibitory.

By Claudia López Lloreda
24 October 2025 | 9 min listen
Portrait photograph of Dame Stephanie Shirley.

In memoriam: Stephanie “Steve” Shirley, autism philanthropist

Fueled by business success and her son, she played an outsized role in British autism research.

By Lauren Schneider
25 September 2025 | 6 min read
A James Hudspeth.

Remembering A. James Hudspeth, hair cell explorer

Hudspeth, who died 16 August at age 79, devoted his 50-year career to untangling how the ear converts sound into electrical signals.

By Calli McMurray
21 August 2025 | 7 min read
Photograph of Floyd Bloom.

Remembering the life of neuropharmacologist Floyd Bloom

The co-author of the classic textbook “The Biochemical Basis of Neuropharmacology” and pioneer in studying the roles of neurotransmitters in the brain died on 8 January at 88 years old.

By Sydney Wyatt
24 January 2025 | 7 min read
Eleanor Maguire.

Remembering Eleanor Maguire, ‘trailblazer’ of human memory

Maguire, mastermind of the famous London taxi-driver study, broadened the field and championed the importance of spatial representations in memory.

By Calli McMurray
10 January 2025 | 8 min read
Portrait of Yves Fregnac.

In memoriam: Yves Frégnac, influential and visionary French neuroscientist

Frégnac, who died on 18 October at the age of 73, built his career by meeting neuroscience’s complexity straight on.

By Bahar Gholipour
18 December 2024 | 9 min read
Headshot of Steve Silberman.

The legacy of Steve Silberman and his book, ‘NeuroTribes’

The writer’s empathic storytelling changed how society—and researchers—view autistic people.

By Emily Willingham
26 September 2024 | 8 min read
Photograph of neuroscientist Harvey Karten.

Remembering comparative neuroanatomy ‘great-grandfather’ Harvey Karten

The National Academy of Sciences member and pioneer in studying non-mammalian vertebrate brains died on 15 July at 89 years old.

By Sydney Wyatt
9 August 2024 | 9 min read
Photograph of Carol Jennings.

Carol Jennings, whose family’s genetics informed amyloid cascade hypothesis, dies at 70

Her advocacy work aided the discovery of a rare inherited form of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and helped connect affected people with researchers.

By Elissa Welle
30 April 2024 | 4 min listen

Larry Young built bridges with his social neuroscience research

Known for his work bringing oxytocin studies to the mainstream, Young died unexpectedly last month.

By Angie Voyles Askham
10 April 2024 | 7 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Daniel Nicholson discusses how Schrödinger’s book ‘What is Life?’ shaped years of biology, research

Combing through historical archives, Nicholson discovered what drove Erwin Schrödinger to pen “What Is Life,” his famous "little book": Schrödinger feared that new discoveries in quantum physics would influence how we think about free will.

By Paul Middlebrooks
5 November 2025 | 1 min read

Our searchable repository of useful research can restore trust in federally funded basic science

Called U.S. Public Research Benefits, the database showcases the value of basic science in an easy and accessible format.

By Adam Charles
5 November 2025 | 6 min listen

How neuroscientists are using AI

Eight researchers explain how they are using large language models to analyze the literature, brainstorm hypotheses and interact with complex datasets.

By The Transmitter
4 November 2025 | 17 min listen

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