Suzanne Corkin

Suzanne Corkin (May 18, 1937 – May 24, 2016) was an American professor of neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT.

Career After she completed her PhD in 1964 she moved to the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to join the laboratory of Hans-Lukas Teuber. In 1977, when Teuber died, Corkin became director of the human neuropsychology laboratory and, in 1981, was promoted directly from the position of principal research scientist to associate professor with tenure.

From that point forward, Corkin directed the Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory, making seminal contributions to many different domains of cognitive neuroscience. These contributions included further delineation of memory systems required for different forms of nondeclarative learning, elucidation of memory deficits that arise in Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and contributions toward theoretical debates regarding the role of the medial temporal lobe in the retrieval of remote memories.

Corkin was also an early adopter of human neuroimaging methods and used these methods to elucidate the neural bases of different forms of human memory and of age- and disease-related changes in memory networks. She discussed the story of H.M. in her 2013 book Permanent Present Tense.

In 1994, Corkin was one of 16 women faculty in the School of Science at MIT who drafted and co-signed a letter to the then-dean of science (now chancellor of Berkeley) Robert Birgeneau, which started a campaign to highlight and challenge gender discrimination at MIT.

Publications and awards She published over 150 research articles and was author or co-author of 10 books. She received numerous awards for her research, including a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health and the Baltes Distinguished Research Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association, Division on Aging.

Mentorship Corkin was widely recognized for her advocacy for women and minorities in science. During her time at MIT, she was a freshman advisor for 17 years, and served on a number of institute and departmental committees. In 2011, she received the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Undergraduate Advising Award at MIT. she also states "We kept the H.M. stuff." )

Controversy is ongoing in regard to Dittrich's article. Over 200 neuroscientists signed a letter to the New York Times stating that the article was biased and misleading and as of August 21, 2016, there continues to be back-and-forth statements released by MIT and by Dittrich. Because there were well-known tensions between Dittrich and Corkin for many years, some reviewers have called Dittrich's book a "personal vendetta" Yet others have favorably reviewed his book, Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets.

Personal life Her marriage to Charles Corkin ended in divorce. She died of liver cancer in Danvers, Massachusetts, on May 24, 2016, at age 78. She is survived by three adult children, Damon, J. Zachary, and Jocelyn Corkin, as well as seven grandchildren.