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Glenn I. Hatton
December 12, 1934 - January 16, 2009
Obituary taken from The Society for
Neuroscience's website
 Glenn
I. Hatton, 74, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Cell Biology and
Neuroscience, University of California, Riverside, died peacefully on
Friday, January 16, 2009, in Riverside following a brief illness from
cancer.
Hatton was born in Chicago, Illinois, December 12, 1934. He received his
B.S. from North Central College, Naperville, Illinois in 1960 in Psychology,
and M. A. and Ph.D. degrees in Psychology and Physiology, from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1962 and 1964, respectively.
In 1965 Hatton joined Michigan State University as an Assistant
Professor, and rose through the ranks to become Professor of Psychology and
Physiology, serving as Director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program from
1978 to 1991. In 1992 he joined the University of California, Riverside as
Professor and founding Chair of the Department of Neuroscience serving in
this position until 2002. He also founded the Neuroscience Graduate Program
at UC Riverside and served as its first Director. During his career he
advanced twice to the rank of Distinguished Professor at UC Riverside in
1997.
Glenn Hatton was internationally recognized for his scientific
contributions that advanced key concepts in neuroscience. Until three
decades ago it was assumed that the structure of the brain is fixed once the
process of development is completed in early life. In pioneering studies
that began in 1976, Hatton helped to transform this thinking by showing
brain structure is dynamic, with marked changes in the shapes and spatial
relationships between different types of brain cells that occur over minutes
to hours. The offshoots of his revolutionary contributions continue to the
present time.
Hatton was one of a relatively small but growing number of
neuroscientists to tackle another fascinating problem – the interaction
between neurons and glial cells. Hatton’s work showing that glial cells play
active roles in functioning nervous systems helped launch the burgeoning
field of glial-neuronal interactions, which has emerged as one of the most
active fields in brain research. His work and leadership was pivotal in the
founding of the Center for Glial-Neuronal Interactions at UC Riverside.
Hatton's expertise was widely recognized by his peers. He published more
than 170 research articles and was continuously funded by NIH throughout his
entire career. He was President of the Association of Neuroscience
Departments and Programs and a member of numerous review panels at the
National Institutes of Health. He was on the editorial boards of several
neuroscience journals. In recognition of his research, he received numerous
honors, including the National Institutes of Health Research Career
Development Award, Fogarty Senior Fellow, Guggenheim Foundation Fellow,
Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge Senior Scholar, Michigan
State University Distinguished Faculty Award, and Fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. Hatton was twice chosen for the
prestigious NIH Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award.
Hatton is survived by Patricia, his wife of 54 years, his children James,
William, Christopher, Jennifer, and Tracey Silla, daughter-in-law Caroline,
and son-in-law Sam, and granddaughter, Aubrey. A son, Trent, died in 1988.
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