Marianne Fillenz
Born5 October 1924
Died
2012
Alma materUniversity of Otago
Somerville College, Oxford
EmployerUniversity of Oxford

Marianne Fillenz (5 October 1924 - 2012) was a Neuroscientist at the University of Oxford.

Early life and education

Fillenz was born in Timișoara, Romania on 5 October 1924.[1] Her mother was Viennese and her father was Hungarian Jewish. To avoid the rise of the Nazis in Eastern Europe, her family moved to New Zealand in 1939 and settled in Christchurch.[2] Fillenz studied medicine at the University of Otago from 1943 - 1949.[3] Here she met John Eccles, a Professor of Physiology at the University of Otago who went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[2] Eccles inspired her to research physiology alongside her pre-clinical medicine studies. During her time in New Zealand she also met Karl Popper.[3] She published her first paper whilst still a medical student, on acetylcholine and the skeletal muscle.[4] Fillenz moved to the University of Oxford to complete a DPhil in physiology at Somerville College in 1950, under the supervision of Sybil Cooper and David Whitteridge.[2] Her PhD focussed on the receptors that stretch eye muscles. During her first term she met John Clarke, a reproductive physiologist from Australia, and married him sixth months later.[5] Fillenz and Clarke had a notably egalitarian relationship (rare for those times) in the raising of their children and in supporting each other's scientific careers.

Research

Fillenz remained at Oxford for her entire life. Her research progressed to the physiology of the autonomic nervous system, where she pioneered the use of voltammetry to measure catecholamine and dopamine release.[6][2] She was a lecturer at St Hilda's College until 1963, when we was awarded a tutorial fellowship at St Anne's College. Fillenz had a remarkable impact on the medical students she taught.[7] And she was a remarkable mentor to many young faculty at Oxford, particularly women faculty. In 1990 she published Noradrenergic Neurons (Problems in the Behavioural Sciences).[8] In 2003 she published Neuroscience: science of the brain: an introduction for young students.[9] She published her final paper, "Memories of John Eccles", in 2012.[10] She died later that year of cancer.[11] From 2018 the University of Oxford have held a lecture series to honour her memory.[12]

References

  1. ↑ Grant, John (1971). Who's who of British Scientists. London: Longman. p. 286. ISBN 978-0-58211-464-7.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Marianne Fillenz Lecture Series — Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics". www.dpag.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  3. 1 2 "College Report 2012-13". Issuu. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  4. ↑ Fillenz, M.; Hanafin, M. (May 1947). "Acetylcholine and neuro-muscular transmission". Journal of Neurophysiology. 10 (3): 189–195. doi:10.1152/jn.1947.10.3.189. PMID 20239773.
  5. ↑ Eric; Karen; Clarke, Sue (8 July 2010). "John Clarke". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  6. ↑ O'NEILL, ROBERT D.; FILLENZ, MARIANNE (1 December 1986). "Microcomputer-Controlled Voltammetry in the Analysis of Transmitter Release in Rat Brain". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 473 (1 Neurochemical): 337–348. Bibcode:1986NYASA.473..337O. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1986.tb23627.x. ISSN 1749-6632. PMID 2879493. S2CID 20890880.
  7. ↑ "Obituary Notices | Physiological Society". www.physoc.org. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  8. ↑ Marianne., Fillenz (1990). Noradrenergic neurons. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521287807. OCLC 20263163.
  9. ↑ Association, British Neuroscience; Fillenz, Marianne; Brain, European Dana Alliance for the; Morris, R. G. M. (2003). Neuroscience: science of the brain: an introduction for young students. Liverpool: British Neuroscience Association. ISBN 9780954520403.
  10. ↑ Fillenz, Marianne (March 2012). "Memories of John Eccles". Journal of the History of the Neurosciences. 21 (2): 214–226. doi:10.1080/0964704X.2011.595630. PMID 22428740. S2CID 205664342.
  11. ↑ "Physiology News - Winter 2013 PN93 digital edition". Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  12. ↑ "Marianne Fillenz remembered at inaugural lecture — Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics". www.dpag.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
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