Reminiscence

Abstract

I gratefully acknowledge Dr. Maxwell Cowan's many contributions to my early career. During my third year of graduate school at the University of California San Diego, Dr. Cowan had just moved to the Salk Institute. While on his tour of the neuroscience laboratories in the area, Dr. Cowan came to visit the laboratory of my advisor, Rebecca Loy. During this time, I mentioned to him that the next step of my graduate studies was to determine the developmental time course of the cholinergic septohippocampal pathway. Not only did Dr. Cowan patiently listen to the prattling of a nervous graduate student but he invited me to come and carry out the studies in his laboratory with David G. Amaral. I couldn't believe my good fortune and quickly took him up on the offer. Dr. Cowan's laboratory was both environmentally and intellectually stimulating. While in Dr. Cowan's laboratory, I was able to learn several types of tract tracing, including 3H-proline anterograde transport, and the “proper” way to perform autoradiography. Little did I know at the time that I would still be using this technique! I think that the work I did in Dr. Cowan's laboratory under David's guidance set a high standard for my future scientific pursuits. I remember that, when I was just about to submit my paper for publication, Dr. Cowan had learned that a manuscript less thoroughly describing the development of the septohippocampal pathway was about to be published. As a graduate student, I was very disheartened, but Drs. Cowan and Amaral were quick to cheer me up. “Don't worry,” they said, “yours will be the study that people will remember.” They were right. To this day, this paper is still cited. Dr. Cowan also was instrumental in my selection of a laboratory for my postdoctoral studies. When it was time to decide my future after graduate school, Dr. Cowan took the time to sit down with me and discuss my plans. At that time, he gave me the names of three people that he thought would be good postdoctoral mentors. I also remember him saying that he thought I would like electron microscopy. Thus, following his advice, I went to work with Virginia M. Pickel at Cornell University Medical College. I wonder if he knew that 20 years later I would be using electron microscopy and still be working on the cholinergic septohippocampal pathway. —Teresa A. Milner