IN MEMORIAM

Nathaniel A. Buchwald

Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Neurobiology, Emeritus

Los Angeles

1924—2006

The UCLA Departments of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Neurobiology recently lost one of their foremost internationally recognized neuroscientists, dedicated educators and administrators. Nat Buchwald was internationally recognized for his pioneering research on the functions of the basal ganglia, an area of the brain closely associated with neurological diseases like Parkinson’s disease. He was the Director of the UCLA Mental Retardation Research Center and a respected faculty member of the UCLA community for more than 40 years. It is an honor to speak for Nat’s many friends, collaborators, colleagues, and students. We have lost a unique individual whose numerous career and personal accomplishments enhanced our knowledge of neuroscience and built a strong nucleus of scientists and clinicians studying the basal ganglia and developmental and mental disabilities at UCLA and throughout the country.

 

Nat was born on July 19, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the eldest child of Nellie and Sol Buchwald. His education was interrupted when he served in the Army during World War II and he finished his undergraduate degree in chemistry at Miami in Florida in 1946. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1953 in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. His first job was instructor in anatomy at Tulane University Medical School (1953-1957). He was recruited to UCLA in 1957 by “Tid” Magoun to join the new Brain Research Institute. He became an associate professor in the Department of Anatomy in 1961 and was rapidly promoted to professor. He joined the Department of Psychiatry in 1970.

 

Nat was one of the first neuroscientists to study electrophysiology in subcortical brain nuclei in awake and unrestrained animals. His early studies on evoked potentials garnered much recognition in the late 1950s. Starting with his classic experiments on the “caudate spindle” published in the major journal of the early 1960s Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, Nat and his colleagues, especially his closest and longest collaborator, Chester D. Hull, Ph.D., maintained a continuing examination of how neurons in the basal ganglia communicate with each other and how this communication is altered in models of diseases and during maturation. Virtually everyone who studied the basal ganglia quoted the now classic studies of Nat Buchwald and Chester Hull showing how caudate nucleus neurons functioned. Over his career, Nat also was the principal investigator on multimillion-dollar grants from the National Institutes of Health and was active at national and international levels promoting neuroscience research especially in the areas of developmental and mental disabilities.

 

Besides being a prominent and accomplished neuroscientist, Nat was a successful administrator at UCLA and a wise and inspired counselor and mentor for students and colleagues. In 1969 he was the founder and Group Coordinator of the Neurophysiology Group of the new Mental Retardation Research Center. He became the Associate Director for Research in 1971 and Director of the UCLA Mental Retardation Research Center in 1973, a position he held until 1993. Nat, along with George Tarjan and Jim Simmons built a cadre of investigators spanning research and clinical service from the “bench to the bedside.” Nat guided the UCLA Mental Retardation Research Center for a twenty-year period through difficult times of funding and policy. He successfully kept the Center and his research group in the forefront of biomedical research for all those years. Many prominent faculty were hired during his tenure as Director and the Center became a key example for successful interactions between researchers and clinicians. Nat was an exemplary member of the faculty devoting considerable time and energy to the UCLA community by serving on many important University committees.

 

Nat was known for his acerbic wit. He was a voracious reader, intellectually curious, loved crossword puzzles and was always eager to learn new things. He loved to travel, to search for new and interesting art and to dine in excellent restaurants. Those of us who traveled with him fondly remember his odysseys for rare lamb and duck. He is survived by his wife Dr. Caroline L. Wakefield, his two daughters, Amanda Bloom and Raina Sky from his first marriage, and his two granddaughters, Nelida Bloom and Aliya Raintree. Nat is also survived by three brothers, Alexander, Charles and Donald, and his sister, Greta Hogan. Unfortunately, he was preceded in death by his son, Scott Sullivan Buchwald.

 

Michael S. Levine