Brain Collections: Brain Collection Personnel

The personnel listed below are, or have been, associated with the Brain Collections at the University of Wisconsin, Michigan State University and the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

The University of Wisconsin (Madison)

Dr. Clinton N. Woolsey was the founder, director, and first Chairman of the Laboratory (and then Department) of Neurophysiology in the Medical School of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.

Curator

Wally Welker curator of the Mammalian Brain Collection at the University of Wisconsin. He is Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of Neurophysiology (currently the Dept. of Physiology) at UW in Madison, Wisconsin. He received his Ph D in The Psychology Dept. of the University of Chicago in 1954 (see History....); was a Postdoctoral Fellow (NIH) at the Department of Neurophysiology, joined the Faculty there in 1958 and formalized the collection of mammalian brain specimens (see History ....).

Histologists

The neurohistologists in the Department of Neurophysiology have played major roles in assuring the high quality of the embedding, sectioning and staining of the brains ever since the neurohistology lab was begun in 1950.

	Helen Brandemuehl (now deceased) established the initial high standards for the laboratory, and trained most of the technicians and students who have worked there. She kept detailed protocols of procedures, routines and staining recipes that have become standard practices for all subsequent personnel in the Laboratory.
	Inge Siggelkow recently retired as the manager and Senior histologist of the Department of Neurophysiology's neurohistology laboratory. She had intimate knowledge of all procedures used by her staff (Ms.'s Ekleberry and Meister, and with them, carried out all the histological procedures that were employed by her staff.
	Jo Ann Ekleberry, Histologist, Univ. of Wis. (now retired). Jo Ann was a devoted neurohistologist for over 26 years. She played a major role in all aspects of histological processing of brain specimens in our normal brain collection. She embedded brains involving celloidin, paraffin, frozen and plastic media. She also sectioned brains and was active in all subsequent histological processing activities, includiong staining, mounting sections on glass slides, cover-glassing the mounted sections, and adjusting the saturation, color, degree of contrast of cells and fibers to enhance visibility of neural features. She diligently cleaned all the slide and then organized all the slide boxes of each specimen and placed them in metal or wooden slide boxes which were organized all slide boxes in shelves. She also kept detailed records of all aspects about each specimen.
	Joan Meister, Histologist, Univ. of Wis. Joan (now retired), was a devoted neurohistologist for over 20 years. She played a major role in all aspects of histological processing of brain specimens in our normal brain collection. She embedded brains involving celloidin, paraffin, frozen and plastic media. She also sectioned brains and was active in all subsequent histological processing activities, includiong staining, mounting sections on glass slides, cover-glassing the mounted sections, and adjusting the saturation, color, degree of contrast of cells and fibers to enhance visibility of neural features. She diligently cleaned all the slide and then organized all the slide boxes of each specimen and placed them in metal or wooden slide boxes which were organized all slide boxes in shelves. She also kept detailed records of all aspects about each specimen.

Illustrator and Photographer

	Carol Dizack, Senior Medical/Scientist Illustrator/Graphic Artist, Univ. of Wis. has contributed to all aspects of the website project.
	Terrill P. Stewart, Emeritus Distinguished Media Specialist, Univ. of Wis.

Information Technologists

Ravi Kochhar, Network Administrator, University of Wisconsin

Jane Sekulski, Programmer, University of Wisconsin

Kevin Graeme, Web Publisher, University of Wisconsin

Michigan State University

Curator

	John Irwin Johnson curates the Brain Collection at Michigan State University. He is Professor of Anatomy at MSU in East Lansing, Michigan. He received his PhD in Psychology at Purdue Unversity in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1958. He joined the faculty of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and then moved on to Michigan State University. At Michigan State, Johnson originally joined the Departments of Biophysics and Psychology, sixteen years later he transferred to Anatomy, and seventeen years after that transferred to Radiology where he currently is on the faculty of the Radiology Department and the Neuroscience Program. Johnson formalized the collection of mammalian brain specimens at MSU (see History ...) from his arrival there until the present.
	Connie serves as the Quality Controller, remind us of our duties to Science so that we do not indulge exclusively in our own entertainment. Trained as a biophysicist at the University of Washington, Connie is currently Assistant Professor in the Radiology Department, teaching anatomy and histology and doing comparative research on the structure of auditory systems of bats.
	Brian is the senior consultant, instructor, mentor, coach and guru in Media design. He is the Assistant Director of the Communications Technology Laboratory, and the Director of the New Media Center at Michigan State University. He teaches advanced courses on hypermedia and user interface design through the Department of Telecommunications at Michigan State University. He is also the founder and leader of the Multimedia Interest Group at Michigan State University.
	Tim is completing his Ph. D. dissertation in Zoology at Michigan State, and this year is contributing his extensive skills in computer technology, graphics, and bioscience to the design and execution of our website project.
	John was the original manager of hardware and software. He is a recent graduate of the University of Tennessee, with a major in Environmental Economics. After an intervening spell as Systems Manager at NeuroScience Associates of Knoxville, Tennessee, he is now a graduate student in the Neuroscience Program. This semester he is doing a laboratory rotation in Pharmacology and Toxicology.
	Pita is the WebMaster, and successfully resists static in getting what you see here properly designed, up, and visible for you. He is, among other things, a pre-medical senior Physiology major.
	Rhonda is now the FileMaker, with responsibility for organizing and maintaining our databases, and for producing digital images from stained sections. She is a pre-medical senior Chemistry major in Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University.
	Keith a senior psychology major at Michigan State with many talents, and keen interests in brain structure and function as well as the Internet. He does almost anything for the project that needs doing at any particular time. Currently this includes editing brain images as well as database entries.
	Ryan is the latest addition to the staff. He will be offering instruction in web-based databasing and other techie things. He will receive his B. S. in Zoology this year, and in January will begin graduate work in Educational Technology at Michigan State.
	Stephanie was the original FileMaker Professional, and had the major responsibility for producing the collections databases that will be the prime feature of this Portal Website. She received her B. S. degree with a major in Zoology, and is currently a first year medical student at the Michigan State College of Osteopathic Medicine.
	Jeff, the first Windows Washer, is also the first on Alumni rolls. He graduated in May 1998 with a Zoology major Bachelor of Science degree, and is now a medical student at the Ohio State University. In 1997-98 he successfully developed procedures for translating the FileMaker Pro databases, used at Michigan State and Wisconsin, into Microsoft Access databases used at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, and vice versa.