Marian Diamond

Marian Cleeves Diamond (née Cleeves, born November 11, 1926) is a professor emerita of anatomy, Department of Integrative Biology, at the University of California, Berkeley who has published research into the neuroanatomy of the forebrain, notably discovery of the impact of the surrounding environment on brain development, differences between the cerebral cortex of male and female rats, and the link between positive thinking and immune health. 2Biography 3Early life Marian Cleeves Diamond was born in Glendale, California to Dr. Montague Cleeves and Rosa Marian Wamphler Cleeves as the sixth and last child in the family. Her father was an English physician and her mother a Latin teacher at Berkeley High School. Diamond grew up in La Crescenta. She was educated with her siblings near home at La Crescenta grammar school, Clark Junior High, Glendale High School and finally Glendale Community College, before going to University of California, Berkeley. She played tennis at Berkeley, earning a letter. 3Career After graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1948, Diamond spent a summer at the University of Oslo, Norway before returning to Berkeley for her graduate studies, the first female graduate student in the department of anatomy. Her doctoral dissertation thesis "Functional Interrelationships of the Hypothalamus and the Neurohypophysis" was published in 1953. During her PhD degree Marian Diamond also began to teach, and teaching became a lifelong passion that continued well into her eightie