Joe dedicated his professional life to creating space and opportunity for underrepresented groups in science. Joe was the co-creator of the Summer Program in Neuroscience, Ethics, and Survival (SPINES), a month-long course, supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Dr. Leichnetz retired from the VCU Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology as Professor Emeritus in 2011, having taught neuroanatomy to medical and graduate students for 41 years, and doing neuroanatomical research on the control of eye movement in primates. Dr. Leichnetz was the Graduate Program Director in his department and Course Director of M-I Neurosciences for over 20 years. He was honored in 2004 with the Distinguished Mentor Award, having counseled numerous students through their career objectives in medicine.

Dr. Shipley was the Donald E. Wilson, MD, MACP Distinguished Professor, preeminent Neuroscientist, longtime Chair of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Founding Director of the UMSOM Program in Neuroscience. Dr. Shipley joined the UMSOM faculty as Chair in 1994. He was one of the world’s leading experts on the neural organization of the region of the brain, called the olfactory bulb, that processes information about odors.

 

Masakazu (Mark) Konishi, the Bing Professor of Behavioral Biology, Emeritus, passed away on July 23. He was 87 years old. Renowned for his work on the neuroscience underlying the behavior of owls and songbirds, Konishi joined the Caltech faculty as a professor of biology in 1975, becoming the Bing Professor of Behavioral Biology in 1980.

Over the span of his career, Dr. Townsel's distinguished performance in the field yielded many awards and acknowledgements including the induction as a Fellow into the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and receiving a Distinguished Alumni Award in Biology in 1999 from the School of Science from Purdue University. He contributed to over 90 publications, and directly trained and nurtured 15 postdoctoral associates.