From Jonathan Horton UCSF
I am deeply saddened upon learning that Jenny Lund has passed away. I met her about 1981 when she came to speak at an informal lunch seminar in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. The topic was her amazing discovery with Kathy Rockland of intrinsic, patchy horizontal connections in the upper layers of the primary visual cortex. At the time I was working furiously on the properties of cytochrome oxidase patches, another periodic structure in the upper layers of striate cortex. I was intensely curious to learn whether the stripe-like pattern they had found would have any relationship to the CO patches. In the end, it turned out that the two systems are independent. What an exciting time it was, when new features of the cortex were being uncovered faster than we could understand them.
What I remember from her visit, first of all, is that she was a lovely British woman. She was from Birmingham, where my mother was born, so I naturally felt an affinity for her. When we met together after her seminar, she was completely open about discussing her science and I was struck by her warm and engaging personality. David Hubel had great respect for her, and upheld her as an example of an pure anatomist who had something intelligent to say. For my part, being an anatomist at heart, my admiration was boundless.
Jenny was an extremely articulate lecturer, who had an ability to paint a compelling overview of a topic while also being cognizant of all the gritty details. That’s an important talent if you want to explain how the visual cortex works. I remember in 2001 she gave a masterful presentation at a Cold Spring Harbor meeting about cortical maps. She analyzed layer by layer the horizontal spread of neural signals and its significance for visual processing. I was fascinated as I listened to her dissect the subject with such authority and clarity.
In another context a few years later, when I happened to be Chair of the Central Visual Processing Study Section, she came up to me and asked, “When is CVP going to start funding some grants on cortical anatomy”. I choked in surprise, and chagrin, because the ratings by the study section weren’t my fault. Privately I agreed with her, but I couldn’t say anything. This encounter showed me another side of Jenny: she could be very plain spoken and a blunt advocate for the approaches that she believed would yield the highest scientific payoff.
My condolences to Ray Lund. What an amazing pair of scientists.
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