Elizabeth Caroline Crosby | |
|---|---|
_Ausschnitt.jpg) Crosbyc. 1950 | |
| Born | (1888-10-25)October 25, 1888 Petersburg,Michigan |
| Died | July 28, 1983(1983-07-28) (aged 94) |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Elizabeth C. Crosby |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago |
| Awards | National Medal of Science, Achievement Award of theAmerican Association of University Women,Henry Gray Award of theAmerican Association of Anatomists |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroanatomy,neuroscience,neurosurgery |
| Institutions | University of Alabama Birmingham,University of Michigan Medical School |
| Thesis | The Forebrain of Alligator Mississippiensis (1915) |
| Doctoral advisor | Charles Judson Herrick |
Elizabeth Caroline Crosby (October 25, 1888 – July 28, 1983) was an American neuroanatomist.[1][2] Crosby received theNational Medal of Science from PresidentJimmy Carter in 1979 "for outstanding contributions to comparative and humanneuroanatomy and for the synthesis and transmission of knowledge of the entire nervous system of the vertebrate phylum."[3] Her "careful descriptions" of vertebrate brains - especially reptiles - helped "outline evolutionary history" and her work as a clinical diagnostic assistant to neurosurgeons resulted in "the correlation of anatomy and surgery."[4]
Elizabeth C. Crosby was born to Lewis Frederick and Francis Kreps Crosby inPetersburg, Michigan in 1888.[1][2] She graduated fromAdrian College with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics in 1910. Influenced by professor of physics and chemistry Elmer Jones, she attended theUniversity of Chicago under C. Judson Herrick and received her Masters of Science in biology in 1912 and then her Ph.D. in anatomy in 1915 via a fellowship.[1] In 1920, Crosby accepted a teaching position in the University of Michigan's department of anatomy under G. Carl Huber; her classes included histology and neuroanatomy. In 1923, Crosby took a sabbatical to work with the renowned scientistC. U. Ariëns Kappers at the Central Institute for Brain Research in Amsterdam. While there, she contributed significantly toThe Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System of Vertebrates (1936). Although Crosby did not have a medical background, she became the first woman to receive full professorship at theUniversity of MichiganMedical School, in 1936[1] and the first to receive the university's Faculty Achievement Award, given in 1956.[1][4]
In 1939 she took a sabbatical to work with ProfRobert Douglas Lockhart at theUniversity of Aberdeen in Scotland. Due to introduction of war-time trans-Atlantic travel restrictions in theSecond World War she unintentionally remained there until 1941.[5]
She eventually became Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Consultant of Neurosurgery before leaving theUniversity of Michigan forUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham in 1963, where she again became Professor Emeritus of Anatomy.[2] She was inducted into theAlabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1987.[6] Crosby's excellence in teaching was officially recognized in 1957 when theGalens Society of theUniversity of Michigan Medical School established the Elizabeth C. Crosby annual award for the best preclinical teaching in the school.[1]
Other distinctions and awards include:
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
