PLATT,JULIA,B. (1857-1935) - PIONEER COMPARATIVE EMBRYOLOGIST AND NEUROSCIENTIST

Julia Barlow Platt was a comparative embryologist and neurobiologist w ho was primarily interested in segmentation of the head in vertebrates . She was born on September 14, 1857 in San Francisco, California. Pla tt grew up in Burlington, Vermont, attended the University of Vermont and began graduate studies at Harvard University. Her nine years as a graduate student were spent on two continents with some of the most in fluential comparative zoologists of the time. Platt's remarkable scien tific accomplishments over a ten year period include a description of axial segmentation currently used in the staging of chick embryos and the first description of a separate anterior head segment in Squalus e mbryos. Her most controversial study identified ectodermal cells in Ne cturus embryos that gave rise to head cartilage and dentine, a discove ry which was the impetus for the reassessment and modification of the germ layer concept. She was one of the first women to 'matriculate' at a German university and receive a Ph.D. degree. Platt played a pionee r role in opening opportunities for other women who followed her. Plat t was one of the first women neuroscientists. Among her contributions, she distinguished dorsolateral placodes, epibranchial placodes, and t he first stages of lateral line organs in Necturus, and she described nerve fibers originating in the spinal cord and extending to the notoc hord in Branchiostoma (= Amphioxus). After receiving a Ph.D. degree in Freiburg, Germany in 1898, Platt was unable to secure a suitable teac hing position and, as a result, her scientific career came to an end. She retired to Pacific Grove, California, where she pursued civic duty with the same vigor and energy she had dedicated to scientific resear ch. We provide a sketch of her remarkable life and work as a comparati ve embryologist, neuroscientist and civic leader.