Ray Guillery facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ray Guillery

Rainer Walter "Ray" Guillery (born August 28, 1929 – died April 7, 2017) was a British scientist. He studied how the body works (a physiologist) and how the brain and nerves are built (a neuroanatomist).

Ray Guillery is famous for a cool discovery about Siamese cats. He found that in some Siamese cats, because of a special gene (part of their DNA) linked to being albino (having very pale skin and eyes), the way their eye nerves connect to the brain is different. This means fewer nerves cross over than in other animals.

Early Life and Learning

Ray Guillery was born in Greifswald, Germany, on August 28, 1929. He started studying medicine at University College London (UCL) in 1948. He earned his first science degree in 1951. Then, he completed his advanced science degree (called a PhD) in 1954.

Ray Guillery's Career

Ray Guillery taught at University College London for 11 years. In 1964, he moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the United States. There, he helped start a new program for students studying the brain and nervous system (neuroscience).

Later, in 1977, he moved to the University of Chicago. He led another new neuroscience program there. In 1984, Ray Guillery came back to the UK. He became the head of the Human Anatomy department at the University of Oxford. He held this important position until 1996.

After that, he was a professor at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. He also continued his research at Oxford as an honorary fellow.

In 1989, Ray Guillery helped start a science magazine called the European Journal of Neuroscience. He was its first main editor.

He passed away on April 7, 2017, when he was 87 years old.

Awards and Honors

Ray Guillery received many important awards for his work. In 1983, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very special honor for top scientists in the UK. In 1987, he also became a Fellow of University College London. He gave a special lecture called the J. W. Jenkinson Memorial Lectureship in 1996.