Anatomists and Neurobiologists Convene for Deepak Pandya Memorial Symposium
Last June 15, the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology (A&N) at BU CAM hosted a Memorial Symposium in honor of Professor Deepak (“Dee”) Pandya in the Eichenbaum Colloquium Room at the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering. Professor Pandya (1932-2020) was a distinguished cortical neuroanatomist and long-term member of the Department. The Symposium was a celebration of Dee’s impressive scientific contributions as well as his superb mentorship of many students, postdocs, and younger collaborators. Eighteen speakers, many of whom remain active researchers in the Department, shared their scientific and personal experiences. His wife of 60 years, Bonnie Zalokar Pandya (herself an author), and daughters Dina Pandya (web designer) and Sunita Williams (astronaut) attended, as did his son Jay Pandya (nuclear medicine technologist) by Zoom. Warm personal memories of Dr. Pandya, from both his nuclear family and extended scientific families, were shared at the evening dinner. Altogether, this was a special testament inspired by a rare individual, someone who preeminently insisted on holding to the highest values both in scientific and person-to-person interactions.
The keynote talk, by M. Marsel Mesulam, set the tone by a brief historical review of “The Triumvirate of Neoconnectivism” (Norman Geschwind, Deepak Pandya, and Gary van Hoesen) and their pioneering early discussions of cortical organization and networks. Brent Vogt (former BU graduate student of Prof. Alan Peters, BU A&N) continued with reminiscences of his days as Dee’s impressionable first technician at Boston City Hospital where, under Dee’s guidance, he launched his seminal research program on connections of the cingulate cortex. Elliott Mufson, an early collaborator focusing on the insular cortex, continued with his own reminiscences of weekly sessions with Dee at the double viewer microscope at Bedford V.A. Hospital. Al Galaburda, Gene Blatt, and Mark Hallett spoke about how Dee initiated them into cortical architectonics and auditory cortex organization. They also, in a recurring memory, evoked the double viewer microscope, where Dee sat directly across from his younger colleague and discoursed on (or mainly on) cortical cellular architectonics as handed down and modified from Brodmann and other ground-breaking researchers. This approach is newly pertinent in the context of “Big Brain” and other emerging high throughput studies.
Extending to cellular microcircuitry, Kathleen Rockland (Dee’s first graduate student) briefly recapitulated visual cortical feedback connections and the still open questions about types of connections, their interactions, and the reciprocating cortical pathways; and Maria Medalla (student of Helen Barbas, and thus a Pandya “grandchild”) presented her results on local circuit interneurons in mouse and monkey visual and frontal cortices. Ana Solodkin (a former graduate student of Gary van Hoesen at the University of Iowa, and thus also a Pandya “grandchild”) summarized a connectivity-based approach to brain simulations of local neural populational dynamics, applicable to individual patients.
Dr. Pandya had a research sphere of influence as wide as the brain itself. Thus, the next session of talks ranged over cognitive-emotional interactions of amygdalar pathways (Helen Barbas, an early collaborator, with co-authored papers from 1984, 1987, 1989), fronto-temporal interactions and the semantic system (Michael Petrides, with multiple co-authored papers from 1988-2012), and hippocampal efferents (Douglas Rosene, with multiple co-authored papers from 1979-2004). Jean Augustinack (a Pandya “grandchild” via Gary van Hoesen) talked about entorhinal subfields in health and disease in the human brain.
The last session, mirroring the last chapters of Dr. Pandya’s long career, dealt with fiber tracts and with cerebellar organization. Nikos Makris discoursed on the structural connectivity approach for interrogating brain fiber tracts, and Xavier Paradis and Catherine Stoodley, former students of Jeremy Schmahmann, discussed the cerebellum in health and disease. In the last scientific talk, Jeremy Schmahmann emphasized the importance of Dr. Pandya’s work as it pertains to and informs the interpretation of non-invasive diffusion tractography in the human brain.
A strong living legacy exists in the large number of Pandya progeny, trainees and collaborators, many of whom continue to work as BU researchers: Drs. Rosene, Barbas (Sargeant College), Rockland, and Rushmore (Archivist of the newly established Pandya-Rosene Neuroanatomy Slide Archive, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine). These in turn have mentored their own students, now moving on as Pandya “grandchildren,” propagating a continuing culture with rigorous study of cortical networks and organization.
The Symposium was a heartfelt tribute to a wonderful scientist and mentor. It brought together an impressive segment of his trainees and collaborators, themselves established researchers in various aspects of cortical organization and connectivity. Penultimate tributes were made by guests David Amaral (remembering in part the “healthy competition” between the Pandya-Geschwind and Max Cowan Groups) and Randy Buckner, who eloquently talked about the pleasure of reconnecting with old friends (scientific colleagues but also the scientific results), and the fact that the anatomical results are actual substrates of cognition. Closing remarks were from Drs. Jenniifer Luebke (Chair, A&N), Kathleen Rockland, and Jeremy Schmahmann. Informal reminiscences continued through the evening at the Boston University Castle on Bay State Road.
In conclusion, we quote first from the essay Dee wrote (1991) in honor of one of his own mentors, Frederich Sanides. “We owe a great deal to his pioneering observations, which have provided a dynamic framework for appreciating cortical architecture. In order to revive and rejuvenate interest in a discipline that was thought to be obsolete, one requires solid scientific background, sound thinking, vision and audacity. ” These sentiments could equally be applied to Dee himself, as recapitulated by Jeremy: he was bold in his hypotheses, but cautious in interpretation of data.
In his own obituary for Dee (to appear later in 2023 in a Special Issue of the Journal of Comparative Neurology), Jeremy further evokes the man’s personality and impact:
“As a practicing internist, Dr. Pandya provided compassionate care to his patients. He was kind and nurturing, a dedicated mentor, and a valued friend. His humility was deep and true, his modesty genuine, and he was never heard to utter a harsh word. He brought a sense of humor to his day and to his work. He was always generous with his time and wisdom, and the depth of his virtue shone through with grace and equanimity. He derived fulfilment and joy from working with his colleagues, postdocs, and technicians. He was energized by his collaborators, and he considered us all his extended family. He was revered and loved in return.”
Video files of the full day of talks reside on this page which includes the event program and speaker key, showing the times that each person’s talk begins.