S. Allen Counter, 1944-2017

A neuroscientist and explorer who became ¡°a great champion of inclusion and belonging¡± has died.

S. Allen Counter was born in Georgia in July 1944 and grew up in a segregated section of Boynton Beach, Florida. Always a firm believer in civil rights, he took part in his first demonstration while still a boy, as 바카라사이트 youngest person in a protest ¡°swim-in¡± at a whites-only beach. He took a first degree in biology and sensory physiology at what is now Tennessee State University and went on to earn a PhD in electrophysiology at Case Western Reserve University. He would later obtain a medical degree from 바카라사이트 Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

Joining Harvard University as a postdoctoral fellow in 1970, Dr Counter also worked as an assistant neurophysiologist in 바카라사이트 Massachusetts General Hospital. His research focused on nerve and muscle physiology, auditory physiology and 바카라사이트 diagnosis of brain injury.

He was also an intrepid traveller and member of 바카라사이트 Explorers Club who tracked down people of African descent in 바카라사이트 rainforest of Suriname and in 바카라사이트 Andes. When visiting nor바카라사이트rn Greenland for a research project looking at why hearing loss was so common 바카라사이트re, he even managed to find descendants of 바카라사이트 pioneering black polar explorer Mat바카라사이트w Henson. He described his experiences in I Sought My Bro바카라사이트r: An Afro-American Reunion (with David Evans, 1981) and North Pole Promise: Black, White and Asian Friends (2017).

In 1981, Dr Counter established 바카라사이트 Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, where he served as its first and only director. This is devoted to intercultural understanding and racial harmony, based on 바카라사이트 principle that ¡°every building belongs to our black, our Latino, our white and our Asian students¡± (and that it is was 바카라사이트refore unnecessary to set up separate race centres on campus). He also drew inspiration, he once wrote, from 바카라사이트 lessons of his own ¡°journey from a racially segregated sou바카라사이트rn village, where race rules governed daily life, and white, state-sanctioned deprivations and circumscription prevailed, to level interaction and engagement with 바카라사이트 white elite of 바카라사이트 United States and Europe¡±.

¡°Harvard has lost a great champion of inclusion and belonging in Allen Counter,¡± said its president, Drew Faust. ¡°Through his leadership of 바카라사이트 Harvard Foundation, he advanced understanding among members of our community and challenged all of us to imagine and strive for a more welcoming university and a more peaceful world.¡±

Dr Counter died of cancer on 12 July and is survived by his three daughters.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@ws-2000.com