Background
Olds was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father Leland Olds later became Chairman of the Federal Power Commission under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Olds grew up in Nyack, New New York
psychologist university professor neuroscientist
Olds was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father Leland Olds later became Chairman of the Federal Power Commission under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Olds grew up in Nyack, New New York
Olds attended college at a number of schools including Saint John"s College, Annapolis, and the University of Wisconsin, but received his undergraduate Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College in 1947. Following the war, Olds went on to get his Doctor of Philosophy at Harvard University in the Department of Social Relations under Professor Talcott Parsons.
Early life and education His undergraduate years were interrupted by military service in the United States. Army during the Second World War as part of the Persian Gulf Command. His thesis was focused on motivation and led to his subsequent interest in the biological basis of motivation. Olds married fellow neuroscientist, Marianne East. Olds in 1946.
They had two children, Jacqueline Olds and James Leland Following his Doctor of Philosophy, Olds went on to do postdoctoral work at McGill University under Donald Olding Hebb, where he made his most important discovery with Peter Subsequently Olds moved to University of California, Los Angeles, where he took his first academic appointment at the Brain Research Institute.
In 1957 Olds was appointed associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. He left Michigan in 1969 to become the Bing Professor of Behavioral Biology at the California Institute of Technology where he continued his research and led a large lab until his untimely death in a swimming accident in August 1976.
His last work was aimed at understanding the mechanisms of learning and memory.
National Academy of Sciences.