James B. Ranck Jr., MD, Celebrated for Contributions to Medical Research and Neuroscience

Dr. Ranck is credited with the discovery of head-direction cells, which has led to further research in the field

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Nov 08, 2018, 13:40 ET

NEW YORK, Nov. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- James B. Ranck Jr., MD, is a distinguished biographee of Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are chosen from among a pool of the most prominent professionals and are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

Noted for his focus on neuroscience, Dr. Ranck has served as a researcher and educator with the SUNY Downstate Medical Center since 1975.

A native of Frederick, Maryland, Dr. Ranck was born in 1930 to James Byrne Ranck and Dorothy Irene Schwieger Ranck. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Haverford College in 1952, followed by a Doctor of Medicine from Columbia University in 1955. He completed an internship through The University of Chicago Medicine. Reflecting on a career that has spanned more than half a century, Dr. Ranck recalls being inspired to enter his profession as a result of the "Doctor Draft" that took place during the 1950s. After being recruited by the National Institutes of Health to perform research, he found a true enjoyment for the field and chose to continue working as a researcher.

Early in his career, Dr. Ranck briefly served as an instructor of biophysics with the department of physiology at the University of Washington. During this time, he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship through the Laboratory of Walter Woodbury between 1959 and 1961. He later relocated to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to serve as an assistant professor with the department of physiology at the University of Michigan. Following 13 years as a professor with the university, Dr. Ranck joined the SUNY Downstate Medical Center as a professor in 1975. He has been recognized as a distinguished teaching professor in physiology since 2005. He received an honorary Doctor of Science from SUNY in 2017.

Dr. Ranck initially focused on analyzing the flow of electric current in the brain, electrical properties of glia, electric impedance of the brain, release of potassium from neurons in a seizure, and which elements are activated in electric stimulation of the brain.

Since 1970 his work has been recording single neurons in behaving rats. Initially this was working out methods; it had never been done before. Then he studied correlations with that fire. After a false start, his working agreed with the spatial theory of O'Keefe and Nadel. His major discovery was of neurons in the presubiculum whose firing was correlated with head direction, which helps explain how the hippocampal formation processes spatial information.

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