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Pioneering spirit

Distinguished scientist Mary Herman Rubinstein left a legacy that will benefit L&S researchers for decades to come.

by Katie Vaughn April 5, 2019
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Mary Herman Rubinstein

This story appeared in the Spring 2019 Letters & Science magazine.

When Mary Herman Rubinstein earned her MD from UW-Madison in 1960, she was one of four women in her medical school class. Yet this was hardly the first nor the last time she would blaze an uncommon course. And though Rubinstein died in 2017, her extraordinary gift to the College of Letters & Science ensures that boundaries will continue to be broken in her name.

Rubinstein’s path to science started early, through a fascination with the natural world. Born in Plymouth, Wisconsin, in 1935, she spent most of her childhood in Madison, where her father worked for what is now the Department of Natural Resources and, later, a state fish hatchery.

“We were surrounded by a beautiful large lawn, pine trees and a two-acre pond providing cattails, many nesting black- birds, great blue herons and hours of ice skating,” she recalled in her unpublished memoir, My Journey. By age 12, she was “picking out insects from mud samples at the research lab” and thinking about medical school, which she applied to early in her junior year while studying medical science at UW-Madison.

After graduating from medical school, Rubinstein served as the sole female intern at a hospital affliated with Dartmouth College before returning to Madison for a residency in neurology. She discovered an interest in neuropathology that guided much of her career from that point onward.

In 1964, Rubinstein took a job as an assistant professor of pathology and a fellowship in a new neuropathology program at Stanford University. With Lucien Rubinstein, whom she married in 1969, she built up the program, which focused on childhood brain tumors, and was an early leader in the use of electron microscopy to study human and experimental brain tumors.

Eventually, Rubinstein joined a team at the National Institute of Mental Health that had made major advances in schizophrenia research. One of her successes was developing a brain donation program that utilized entire brains instead of small tissue samples.

After retiring in 2013, Rubinstein returned again to Madison. She passed away four years later, but not before establishing the inaugural chair in neuroscience at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and championing efforts to recognize talented faculty in the College of Letters & Science. A generous bequest will support up to seven endowed professorships that reflect Rubinstein’s belief in the importance of supporting innovative research, rewarding outstanding teaching and honoring scholars who maintain the highest standards of professional integrity.

L&S Dean Karl Scholz designated botany professor Anne Pringle as the recipient of the first professorship in late 2018, and will name more in the coming year. Each will hold the title of Letters & Science Mary Herman Rubinstein Professor for the duration of their careers, in testament to a scientist and scholar who constantly pushed the boundaries of what’s possible and paved the way for others to do the same.


Small Wonders

For Anne Pringle, fungi hold clues to some of the biggest questions in science — and inspire some of the most exciting research.

Anne Pringle. Photo by Paulius Musteikis.

The natural world is full of mysteries, and Anne Pringle believes many answers can be found in fungi. The Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Botany, and the first Letters & Science Mary Herman Rubinstein Professor, says they’re a “black box” when it comes to understanding biology.

“We think we know a lot about how organisms work, but our ideas are based on animals or, to a certain extent, plants,” she says. “But when we explore fungi, many of our principles, tenets and paradigms are challenged. Even simple ideas like, ‘that’s an organism,’ are challenged.”

Pringle is fascinated by the ways fungi seem different from plants, animals and bacteria. Her work has taken her from tracking an invasive species in California to leading mushroom hunters through southern Wisconsin, and from tracing the origins of symbiosis to exploring cooperation among individuals to finding a deeper understanding of spore dispersal.

Her lab uses fungi to test principles of ecology and evolution, and her students — whether working with a poisonous mushroom, investigating how fungi responds to pollution or researching where new genes come from — are characterized by a desire to think broadly and differently.

Pringle will serve next year as president of the Mycological Association of America, and she has received a number of teaching and mentoring awards. But to be named a Mary Herman Rubinstein Professor is a unique honor.

“It’s clear she was a woman ahead of her time,” Pringle says. “Everything about her life speaks to creativity and resilience, and being unafraid to change course and think differently. All of these are qualities I admire immensely. I will be glad to honor her legacy.”

– Katie Vaughn

This story appears in the spring 2019 issue of Letters & Science magazine. 
Read the full issue here.