2003 Education Award in Neuroscience

Dr. James G. Townsel 

Introduction of James G. Townsel, Ph.D., 2003 recipient of the ANDP Award for Education in Neuroscience

By Barbara R. Talamo, Ph.D., Past President ANDP (Tufts Medical School)

When I first met Jim, he was a Visiting Associate Professor and NINDS Special Fellow (and he was a "special fellow") in the Department of Neurobiology in Ed Kravitz' lab at Harvard Medical School where I was a postodoctoral fellow. Jim was deeply immersed in the microchemistry of single cholinergic neurons and I was trying to learn what neurobiology was all about, after a reductionist experience absorbing and explicating details of lipid enzyme biochemistry. John Hildebrand and Bruce Wallace were in the laboratory as well, contributing the bouncing-off-the wall free-for-all that constituted lab meetings and discussions of experiments and the greater Complete Theory of Neurobiology. The Jim of those days was not so different from the Jim of today-outspoken, sure of his viewpoint, and full of insights about the broader diverse cultural world of education and science (and life) that we -his fellow lab mates--might not have been exposed to (even though we certainly had strong, perhaps ill-founded, opinions). I do think his haircut was a little different today-the Fro is gone.
Jim graduated from Virginia State College and got his Ph.D. in Physiology from Purdue University as an NIH fellow. The years following his Ph.D. included stints as an NINDS Frontiers in Research and Training Fellow at the MBL in 1971 and as Visiting Associate Professor in Ed Kravitz' lab, mentioned above (also Fellow of the APA ). Following that period he became Asst. Prof of Neurobiology at Meharry Medical College and the coordinator of the FRT Program at MBL. His lifelong interest in encouraging minority training became evident in his appointments as Associate Director and then Director of the Minority Biomedical Research Program at Meharry In 1978, he left Meharry to become Associate Dean for Urban Health Program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and Associate Professor of Physiology there-and then Associate Vice Chancellor for Urban Health. In 1984, Meharry Medical College lured him back to take over the Chairmanship of the Department of Physiology and Director of the Neuroscience Group, while also acting as Director of the Minority Biomedical Research Support Program. Administrative talent is quickly recognized and Jim became acting Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research and Associate Vice President for Research at Meharry. Ever on the look out for new ways to promote minority training and smooth the way toward professional careers, he became Director of the "Bridges to Professional Advancement Program" in 1995, at the same time participating as a co-coordinator of the Summer Program at MBL (SPINES), which has served as an eye-opener and networking mechanism for so many minority students, introducing them to high profile neuroscientists, giving them access to the fine courses at MBL and providing survival skills needed to make your way through the often confusing scientific and non-scientific maze that can confronts the aspiring neuroscientist and may lead or divert the way to a successful career.
Jim has been a tireless advocate of access and support of the training of minority and less privileged students who have not had the advantage of continuous access to educational advantages and the knowledge of the social structure of the neuroscience world. Since 2001 he has been Director of an innovative partnering program termed "The Meharry/Vanderbilt Alliance in Neuroscience Training Programs", and Director of the Research Centers in Minority Institutions Program at Meharry as well as Associate Vice President for Sponsored Research there. And through all this he has served tirelessly on national review boards and advisory panels at NIH, NSF, the APA, --a list that runs into pages. Multiplexing all the way, he has continued to research and publish on cholinergic signaling (often in the Limulus model) and sponsored the training of many PhD and postdoctoral students-most of them minority students, in keeping with his devotion to providing serious and supportive training for this population. The current positions of these students are an impressive tribute to their fine training, and encompass the wide range of academic positions-from Professor to Provost and to careers as interesting and varied as "livestock specialist" in an academic setting. 
When I asked Jim to tell me what he has enjoyed most in his career, he listed a few of the activities and recognition that he appreciates:
The 1997 Michael J. Bent Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research and Scholarly Activities at Meharry Medical College
The 1999 School of Science Distinguished Alumnus Award in the Biological Sciences at Purdue
The 2001 Lifetime Achievement Award of the APA Minority Fellowship Program in Neuroscience
And his 6 year appointment to the Visiting Committee for the Division of Medical Sciences of the Board of Overseers at Harvard College.
Another important contribution to the broader community is his service on the National Advisory Mental Health Council and the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council.

We recognize Jim today for the excellence of his scientific career and for his devotion and achievements in providing mentoring and sponsoring opportunities for students who strive to move into the sometimes unfamiliar cultural world of contemporary professional neuroscience.