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1st appeared
15
May 2000
Diane Daly Ralston, Pain Researcher and Honored Professor, Dies Diane Daly Ralston, PhD, an extremely popular UCSF professor and a skilled researcher who studied the effects of injury on nerve circuitry, died Wednesday, May 10, at her home in San Francisco. She was 61 and had been disabled for the past few months by a brain tumor. A dedicated teacher who won many awards for her approach to instructing medical students, Ralston earned her doctorate degree just six years ago after a 30-year career in university research. In 1998 she was recognized for outstanding contributions as a mentor to her medical students, and last year she received the Distinguished Service Award from the Department of Neurological Surgery. Ralston was associate adjunct professor of anatomy and neurological surgery at UCSF. Her research focused on changes in the nervous system brought on by injury, with an aim toward understanding and treating spinal cord injury and chronic pain. She collaborated in much of this UCSF research with her husband Henry James (Peter) Ralston, MD, professor and former chair of anatomy at UCSF. Allan Basbaum, PhD, professor and current chair of UCSF’s department of anatomy, said, "Diane was one of the most skilled neuroanatomists and surgeons, using a range of modern anatomical techniques to probe the damaged circuitry underlying many neurological diseases. "Her interest was understanding the nerve’s connectivity in the central nervous system and how it changes following nerve injury. She integrated basic biology and clinical neuroscience as few others could, and she communicated that interest to her students. She captivated them." Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1938, Ralston grew up in that city and received an RN degree from the Mt. Sinai Hospital School of Nursing in New York in 1959. After eight years of nursing, she became a research assistant in anatomy at Stanford University. She went on to the University of Wisconsin and then joined the UCSF anatomy department in 1973, becoming a research specialist in 1985 and a lecturer in 1991. The anatomy of the nervous system was her focus, and after she became a professor she continued to perform all of the key surgery involved in her research. While she was working at UCSF, Ralston earned a BS in biology/physiology and also a BA in French cum laude at San Francisco State University in 1985. After a successful research project at UCSF, a Dutch collaborator convinced her to gain the doctorate degree to match the professional level of research she was carrying out. She received a PhD in medicine from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands in 1994. She is survived by her husband and two daughters, Rachel Ralston Baxter of Ottawa, Canada, and Amy Sue Ralston of Alameda. At Friday’s medical school graduation at UCSF, Ralston will be honored posthumously by the graduating class for her memorable preclinical instruction, an honor she had been selected to receive well before her death. Her husband will accept the honor for her. A public celebration at UCSF of Ralston’s life is being planned for early June by campus friends and colleagues. The date is to be announced. Source: Wallace Ravven, News Services |
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