Millennium Magazine_3rdEd

59 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine D r. James B. Ranck Jr. is a respected and accomplished neuroscience researcher and educator who recently served the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center as a distinguished teaching professor in physiology from 2005 until his retirement in 2015. A former professor in the department of physiology at the medical center for 30 years, he previously acted in the same capacity at the University of Michigan from 1962 to 1975. Prior to these appointments, he served the University of Washington as an instructor of biophysics from 1960 to 1961 and a scientist in the Laboratory of Neuroanatomy of the National Institutes of Health from 1956 to 1958. He commenced his career as an intern for the University of Chicago Medicine in 1955. Drawing upon a BA from Haverford College and MD from Columbia University, Dr. Ranck was a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Walter Woodbury at the University of Washington between 1959 and 1961. He subsequently received an honorary doctorate from SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 2017 upon his retirement. Impressively, themedical center held a symposium in his honor in September 2016. However, he is most renowned for discovering head-direction cells, which was an influential discovery in the field and led to further research. Conducting his research on rats, his work agreed with the spatial theory of O’Keefe and Nadel, whose work – alongside Dr. Ranck’s discoveries – explained how the hippocampal formation processes spatial information. He also focuses his research on analyzing the flow of electric currents in the brain and which elements are activated in electric stimulation of the brain. Demonstrating versatility in his profession, Dr. Ranck has authored and co-authored numerous texts in relation to neuroscience. He has also contributed articles to scholarly journals and chapters to books. As a testament to his profound success, he was highlighted in the 24th edition of Who’s Who in the East, the 26th edition of Who’s Who in the World, and multiple editions of Who’s Who in America. Notably, he was featured in the November 20, 2018 volume of The Wall Street Journal for his achievements in the field. JAMES B. RANCK JR., MD NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCHER, EDUCATOR SUNY Downstate Medical Center New York, NY EDUCATION