ABOVE: PENN STATE
Victoria Braithwaite, a professor at Penn State University best known for her work on fish cognition, died at age 52 from pancreatic cancer late last month (September 30). One of the first scientists to systematically explore pain perception in fish, Braithwaite’s work stimulated debate about cognition in non-human animals, and helped inform animal welfare guidelines in scientific research.
“Victoria had an enormously successful career in trying to understand the minds of animals,” Susan Healy, a biologist at the University of St. Andrews in the UK who penned an obituary for Braithwaite for The Guardian, says in a statement from Penn State. “Given that we are still trying to do this with our own species, this has been no small challenge.”
Braithwaite was born the sixth of seven children of June and Alan Braithwaite in 1967 in Bradford in the UK. After an undergraduate degree at the University ...
