Obituaries

Recent articles

Remembering prominent neuroscientists

Composite of headshots of neuroscientists who passed away in the past several years.

The leaders we have lost

Learn more about the lives and legacies of the neuroscientists who passed away between 2023 and 2025.

By The Transmitter
15 November 2025 | 4 min read
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 | 8 min read
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 read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Two hands hold a paper airplane.

How will neuroscience training need to change in the future?

Training in computational neuroscience, data science and statistics will need to expand, say many of the scientists we surveyed. But that must be balanced with a more traditional grounding in the scientific method and critical thinking. Researchers noted that funding concerns will also affect training, especially for people from underrepresented groups.

By The Transmitter
15 November 2025 | 11 min read
Stack of papers.

What are the most-cited neuroscience papers from the past 30 years?

Highly cited papers reflect the surge in artificial-intelligence research in the field and other technical advances, plus prizewinning work on analgesics, the fusiform face area and ion channels.

By The Transmitter
15 November 2025 | 11 min read
A tree limb-like pattern superimposed over a landscape.

Tracing neuroscience’s family tree to track its growth

By mapping connections among researchers, Neurotree makes it possible to see how the field has evolved and how shifts in lab size, publication rates and training, among other factors, shape its direction.

By Stephen David
15 November 2025 | 7 min read

privacy consent banner

Privacy Preference

We use cookies to provide you with the best online experience. By clicking “Accept All,” you help us understand how our site is used and enhance its performance. You can change your choice at any time. To learn more, please visit our Privacy Policy.