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Norma
B. Slepecky, Ph.D.
Norma Brause Slepecky died on Wednesday, May
2nd, at her home in Syracuse after a long fight
with ovarian cancer. She was 57. Norma
was known to many of us for her expertise in
cochlear cell biology and as one of the finest
persons in our field. Norma persisted in her
research and teaching efforts at the Department of
Bioengineering and Neuroscience, Institute for
Sensory Research at Syracuse University until the
end. She attended her last doctoral student's
defense just two weeks before her death.
Norma completed her B.S. in Biology and
M.S. in Microbiology at Syracuse University.
It was there that she developed her skills and love
of electron microscopy with a thesis entitled "Fine
Structure Analysis of Germination of Bacillus
magaterium Spores." I first met her when we
worked at the Department of Otolaryngology at the
State University of New York Health Sciences Center
in Syracuse. She has been an inspiration ever
since. By that time, she and her husband
Ralph had raised two teen-age twin daughters and at
the same time Norma had developed a great deal of
expertise in cochlear anatomy. It was clear
that it was not just the pretty pictures that drove
her. Norma derived immense pleasure from
thinking about how things worked. It was
natural that she would go on to study the
cytoskeleton and motility. Norma completed
her Ph.D. work in Anatomy and Cell Biology at the
SUNY Health Sciences Center with Steve
Chamberlain. Her dissertation "Anatomy of the
Stereocilia in Sensory Hair Cells of the Inner
Ear: Ultrastructure, Protein Composition, and
Functional Implications" was one of the earliest in
auditory research to use cryofixation for
immunolabeling, a technique that is not yet fully
appreciated.
She went on to do postdoctoral studies at
the Karolinska Institute with Drs. Flock and
Ulfendahl. She was affiliated with the
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the SUNY
Health Sciences Center and with the Institute for
Sensory Research at Syracuse University throughout
her career. During that time, she also was a
Visiting Research Scientist at the Laboratory of
Molecular Otology, NIDCD, NIH. She was a
teacher and a research mentor for a number of
undergraduate and doctoral students. From her
own laboratory, Norma collaborated with a number of
distinguished physicians and researchers in our
field including Satoshi Yamamoto, Hayes Wanamaker,
David Sullivan, Tom MacRae, Will Sheppard, Brad
Schulte, Jennifer Stone, Peter Steyger, Hanna
Sobkowicz, and Art Popper. She contributed
numerous publications to the literature.
Photographs from her published work have been
reprinted in several reference texts.
Outside the laboratory, her contributions were
as generous. Within her department, she was
the director of the Graduate Program in
Neuroscience, chairman of the Baule Colloquium and
Seminar Programs, and advisor to the Senior Design
Thesis Project. Within her college, she was a
member of the Faculty Council and a number of
committees including the Upstate New York Graduate
Forum to Recruit Minority Students. At the
university level, she served as chairman of the
Institute Animal Care and Use Committee, reviewer
for the Graduate Student Summer Grant Application
and participant in the "Women in Sciences and
Engineering" Initiative and a member of the Senate
Committee on Women's Concerns. Outside the
university, Norma was a member of the Editorial
Board of Hearing Research, an ad hoc reviewer for
J. Neurophysiology, J. Association for Research in
Otolaryngology, and NeuroImage, and an invited
reviewer for Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences USA, Cell and Tissue Research, J.
Acoustical Society of America, J. Histochemistry
and Cytochemistry, Annals of Otolaryngology, J.
Neuroscience, Auditory Neuroscience, J.
Neurocytology, and Biochemica and Biophysica
Acta. She was a judge for the MOST Science
Fair, and a participant in "Opportunities for
Research Education for Undergraduates.
Norma's contributions and enthusiastic
influence on her students and colleagues may be
recognized by memorial contributions to the Norma
Slepecky Lectureship and Undergraduate Research
Prize Fund, Institute for Sensory Research, 621
Skytop Road, Syracuse, NY 13244-5290. A
description of the memorial fund may be found at
http://www.isr.syr.edu/slepecky/
It was largely through Norma's efforts
that I was encouraged to return to research and
make a commitment to the cochlea. When I met
her, I was the son of Norma and Ralph's
plumber. When we parted, we were
colleagues. That was Norma. Though I
never told her, "she was my heroine". She was
the wind beneath many of our wings.
Donald E. Coling, Ph.D., UCSF
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