Marianne Egier Olds

December 31, 1927 - October 23, 2014 Marianne E. Olds died at the age of 87 in her own home in Pasadena, CA during her sleep. She had been ill with cardiac failure for many months. She grew up in Brussels, Belgium until she was 14 when she and her family tried to escape from Europe. She and her father were able to escape to America but her sister and mother were not able to get away from Europe in 1943. Once in America, Marianne was accepted into Smith College as part of their refugee program. She loved it there and met her future husband (who was at Amherst), James Olds. When they graduated, they got married and later moved to Cambridge, MA where they both pursued PhDs at Harvard. They also had their first child, Jacqueline Olds. In 1953, they both received their degrees and moved to Montreal where James Olds did two post doctoral years at McGill University. During this time James made a discovery of the part of the brain now named "the reward center." He then went on to UCLA for two years for a post-doctoral fellowship. By that time, Marianne and James had started working together. In 1957, their second child was born, James Leland Olds. In 1958, James and Marianne went as a team to the University of Michigan where James had accepted a tenured professor position. They lived there in Ann Arbor for the next 6 years, running a laboratory together. Then California Institute of Technology offered a professorship to James, and the family moved to Pasadena, CA where Marianne lived out the duration of her years. In 1976, James died unexpectedly early of a heart attack, and Marianne continued to run a neuroscience laboratory at Cal Tech for another 20 years. Meanwhile her son, James Leland Olds became a neuroscientist in his own right. Her daughter, Jacqueline, is a psychiatrist. Marianne continued until the present to pursue her passionate interest in neuroscience. She is survived by her son and daughter, two grandchildren, Nathaniel L. Schwartz and Sarah Elizabeth Olds Schwartz, and two great grandchildren. Contributions in Marianne Olds's name can be sent to Smith College or Amherst College.