Melissa Hines facts for kids

Melissa Marie Hines was born on November 27, 1951. She is an American neuroscientist and professor at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Hines studies how boys and girls develop differently. She looks at how experiences before and after birth affect brain development and behavior.

Early Life and Education

Melissa Marie Hines was born in Moline, Illinois. Her parents were Janice and William Joseph Hines. She went to Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Hines earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Princeton University. She was part of the first group of women to study there as undergraduates. This might have sparked her interest in how gender develops. In 1981, she received her PhD in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focused on how certain hormones might affect behavior related to gender.

Research and Discoveries

After her PhD, Dr. Hines did more research at the UCLA Brain Research Institute. She also worked at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She studied how hormones influence brain development in animals. Later, she became a professor at UCLA.

In 1996, Dr. Hines moved to the UK and became a psychology professor at City University. She is a licensed counseling psychologist in the UK. In 2006, she joined the University of Cambridge. She also became part of Churchill College, Cambridge. Today, she leads the Gender Development Research Centre at the University of Cambridge.

Her research explores why there are differences between male and female brains and behaviors. For example, she and another scientist, Alexander, found that male and female monkeys prefer different toys. This suggests that toy preferences might develop even without social influences. Other studies by Dr. Hines show that girls with higher levels of certain hormones might be less interested in dolls. They might prefer toy vehicles instead.

Dr. Hines has also discussed her findings with other researchers. Sometimes her results are different from theirs. For instance, her studies might show an influence only for girls, while others might see it for boys or both.

Sharing Her Work

Dr. Hines has been the President of the International Academy for Human Behavior Studies. She wrote a book called Brain Gender, which was published in 2005.

She has spoken at many events, like the "Women's Word" festival at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge in 2011. She has also appeared on BBC Radio 4. In 2014, she was a speaker at the Cambridge Science Festival. She also writes articles for The Conversation website.

Personal Life

..... He was a well-known psychiatrist and researcher of human behavior. They married in 1994 and later divorced in 2014. They had one son together.