Marian Diamond, '48, MA'49, PhD'53-- celebrated brain scientist, director of Lawrence Hall of Science 1990-96, and professor of integrative biology--is Cal's 1995 Alumna of the Year. She is the 53rd Berkeley graduate, and the fourth woman, to win this distinction.
One of her major discoveries--that with proper stimulation the brain can continue to develop at any age--has revolutionized our thinking about aging. An equally significant finding to come out of Diamond's work is that male and female brains are structured differently.
In 1975 Diamond won Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award (see p. 18), and in 1989 the international Council for Advancement and Support of Education selected her "California professor of the year."
Diamond arrived on campus in 1946 as a transfer student from Glendale Junior College. After receiving her doctorate, she began teaching stints at Cornell. In 1960, she returned to Cal and has been here ever since.
Diamond is famous for explaining the marvelous workings of the human brain to everyone from small schoolchildren to peers at scientific conferences. To illustrate, she often has handy her flowered hatbox containing her favorite item--a human brain.
Photo by Gerry Gropp