Professor of Biology { Email Professor Braford } Specialty: Evolution of nervous systems After completing his graduate studies, Mark Braford was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, where he met Catherine McCormick, who is now his wife. (He and McCormick share the vertebrate biology position that was created by the retirement of Emeritus Professor Warren F. Walker, Jr., who taught at Oberlin from 1947 to 1985.) At Oberlin, Braford has taught both evolutionary biology and organismal biology at the introductory level, as well as an upper-level course in neuroanatomy with a laboratory that emphasizes modern experimental methods. He is currently working on a neuroanatomy textbook focused on principles of organization and intended for use at the undergraduate level. Braford's research interests center on the evolution of nervous systems. He uses anatomical methods to analyze the organization of the forebrain in various vertebrates, especially fishes, and he interprets his findings in comparative and evolutionary contexts. The human forebrain, which includes the cerebral cortex, houses the machinery subserving higher brain functions. Braford's comparative studies of the very differently organized forebrains of fishes should reveal both evolutionary antecedents of this machinery in the human brain and specializations unique to fishes. Braford's work has been continuously supported by the National Science Foundation since 1982, including a 1989 award for three years. His current projects include tracing neuronal tracts using horseradish peroxidase and carbocyanine dyes and immunocytochemical studies for localizing various neurotransmitters and neuroactive peptides. Students have been involved in a variety of his research projects, including a study of sexual dimorphism in the spinal cord of the rat and immunocytochemical studies of the forebrain of teleost fish. Braford is on the editorial board of Brain, Behaviour and Evolution, and he is active in the J.B. Johnston Club, an international group of comparative neurobiologists. At Oberlin he is a former member of the Health Plan Board and a current member of the Neuroscience Program Committee. A.B. (Zoology/Chemistry), 1964, Wabash College Ph.D. (Biology), 1971, Case Western University