When Marye Anne Fox GR '74 was a graduate student at the College, she was told to stop pursuing her studies in chemistry to raise her children. Her mentor at Dartmouth told Fox she had "possibilities," Fox told the San Diego Union-Tribune. Years later, Fox along with Mortimer Mishkin '46 is one of 10 people chosen to receive the National Medal of Science, the White House announced Friday.
President Barack Obama will present the medals at a White House ceremony later this week, according to a Monday blog post on the White House website.
Fox is now the chancellor of the University of California, San Diego, and Mishkin is a senior investigator of neuroscience at the National Institutes of Health.
Mishkin's work has revealed much about the interactions between the brain pathways for memory with the pathways for vision, hearing and touch, according to a NIH press release. He has worked at the National Institute of Mental Health since 1955, and is currently its chief of the section on cognitive neuroscience and acting chief of the neuropsychology laboratory.
Mishkin's five decades of research show that nonhuman primates use different pathways to process two different types of memory, according to the release. Cognitive memory, which includes events and new information, is processed via an emotional hub of the brain, the limbic lobe. Behavioral memory, which includes skills and habits, circuits through an action center, the basal ganglia, according to the release.
The young researchers Mishkin mentors inspire him, he said in the release.
"These youngsters who have the dream of trying to understand something as complex as the brain will drive the process [of research] further, because they have skills and techniques beyond any that I was able to acquire when I was their age," he said in the release.
Colleagues greeted Mishkin's receipt of the award enthusiastically, they said in the release.
"We NIMH'ers who were aware of Mort's vast knowledge of cognitive neuroscience often referred to him as a national treasure and now it's true." Elizabeth Murray, a laboratory of neuropsychology researcher said.
Mishkin is currently applying his research to the treatment of children with amnesia, in collaboration with British colleagues, according to the release. He is a visiting professor at the institute of child health at University College London.
Fox followed her first husband, a medical resident at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, to Hanover and enrolled in graduate school at Dartmouth after finding that the local teaching jobs were already filled by faculty wives, she told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Fox became pregnant during her second year of graduate school, she said. After delivery, she spent her mornings at home with the baby and worked in the laboratory at night sometimes from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
"My mentor, David Lemal, sometimes stayed with me so I wouldn't be alone, so it would be safe," she said. "My mother expected me to quit science. She said that I should stay at home and raise my children. It was [chemistry professor emeritus] David Lemal who said, She has possibilities.'"
Fox, who received a doctorate in chemistry from the College in 1974, is now celebrated for her work on the behavior of molecules and how they interact with surfaces, according to the Union-Tribune. She was a professor at the University of Texas until North Carolina State University appointed her its chancellor in 1998, the Union-Tribune wrote. Fox joined UCSD as chancellor in 2004.
The medal specifically acknowledges Fox's contributions to research behind renewable energy sources, her promotion of women's role in science and her success at facilitating partnerships between UCSD and industry, which have created new companies and jobs, according to the Union-Tribune. Fox has also advised Congress on scientific questions on numerous occasions, most notably after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
Timing was essential in Fox's pursuit of science, she said. After the 1957 launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik, the United States became very supportive of careers in science.
"There was real pressure from Washington at the time, and if you were at all smart, you thought about it at least, thought seriously about having a career in biology or chemistry or physics," she said.
The medals are "the highest honors bestowed by the United States government on scientists, engineers, and inventors," according to the White House press release.
The National Science Foundation is the administer of the National Medal of Science for the White House, the release said. A committee of individuals appointed by the President select nominees for the annual award based on their contributions to the biological, behavioral and physical sciences, including chemistry, engineering, computing and mathematics, the release said.
Neither Fox nor Mishkin could be reached for comment by press time. Fox's chief of staff, Clare Kristofco, said Fox was en route to Washington.
