Victoria Braithwaite

Infobox scientist name = Victoria Braithwaite birth_name = image = victoria-braithewaite-scientist-by-bill-cramer.jpg caption = Victoria Braithewaite in 2011 birth_date = She was one of seven children. She demonstrated that birds fly home faster when they see their surroundings before being released. She showed that fish which live in stable environments (like ponds) use visual markers for guides, whereas fish that live in rivers learn directions using sequences (like left, right, left, right). Her research was the first to show that an animal's cognition is shaped by the worlds in which they live. To recognise her contributions to our understanding of animal navigation, Braithwaite was elected to the Royal Institute of Navigation in 2005.

She moved to the University of Edinburgh in 1995 where she began to investigate whether or not fish felt pain – so-called nociception. She demonstrated fish felt pain using a series of experiments, the first of which included showing that fish contained the correct anatomy to detect pain (nociceptors). She showed that fish produce pain-killing opioids in the same way that mammals do. As of 2019 other countries were also considering making such changes. Before Braithwaite's work, fish that had been reared in tanks did not survive when they were released into the world. Whilst a visiting fellow at the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study in 2015, Braithwaite analysed the inferences that could be made about animal pain and other emotional states. She was offered the directorship of the IGB Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in 2018,

Selected publications Her publications include:

Awards and honours 2005 Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation 2006 Fisheries Society of the British Isles Medal 2016 Fellow of the Linnean Society of London

Personal life Braithwaite in 1992 married the evolutionary biologist Andrew Read; they eventually divorced. Together they had two sons. In 2018 she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She died on 30 September 2019.