| Douglas G. Stuart | |
| Birth Date: | October 5, 1931 |
| Birth Place: | Casino, New South Wales, Australia |
| Death Place: | Tucson, AZ |
| Known For: | Neuroscience, Fatigue, Aging, Electromyography, Motor Control |
| Education: | Diploma in Physical Education Sydney Teachers' College BS (PE; physiology) 1955; MA (PE; physiology) Michigan State University PhD (Physiology) 1961 University of California-Los Angeles |
| Employer: | University of Arizona |
| Organization: | Department of Physiology |
| Occupation: | Neuroscientist |
| Regents' Professor Emeritus of Physiology | |
| Awards: | Regents' Professor, University of Arizona 1990 |
| Website: | Stuart's page at UA |
Douglas G. Stuart (October 5, 1931 – April 6, 2019[1]) was a Regents' professor emeritus of Physiology at the University of Arizona.[2]
As a young man in Australia, Stuart trained to compete with the Australian team in the British Commonwealth Games as a high jumper. He came to Michigan State University (East Lansing, Michigan) on a track scholarship in 1954 to complete his BS (1955) and MS (1956) in physical education with an emphasis on mammalian physiology and the physiology of exercise. It was at MSU that Stuart developed his interest and expertise in academe (including exposure to experimental neuroscience; his first venture involved testing the effects of fatigue on human reaction time); blossomed in public speaking (MSU sent him state-wide to promulgate interest in its foreign student program) and leadership (he co-ran a dormitory of 500 undergraduate and graduate students); met and subsequently married (1957) an American undergraduate (see below). Rather, with the guidance of an outstanding MSU teacher and mentor, Professor W. Duane Collings (1914–81), he opted to pursue a PhD in physiology at UCLA, where he began his studies in January 1957.[3] Immediately prior, however, he returned briefly to Australia where, after failing to make the Australian track team, he designed and had built the scoreboards used for over a dozen sports (e.g., basketball, boxing, gymnastics, swimming) at the Melbourne Olympic Games in November 1956. During this visit he was offered the opportunity to return to the US as a member of the Australian Department of External Affairs by its then-minister, Richard Casey. The NSW Department of Education also offered him a new and unique position as a track and field organizer and coach of new clubs throughout the state. By then, however, Stuart was firmly committed to undertaking a PhD in physiology, with a subsequent research career in the USA.
Stuart is known worldwide[4] for his research contributions in neural control of movement, in the understanding of the fundamental properties of spinal neurons, overviews on the neurobiology of motor control, and the history of movement neuroscience. He has over 130 experimental papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and has authored almost 100 chapters, reviews and symposium volumes. His research was funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health. Between 1984 and 1991, he held the Senator Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, and between 1976 and 1977 he was selected as a Guggenheim Fellow. Stuart coined the term "interphyletic awareness" during the organization (together with Sten Grillner (University of Stockholm and Paul Stein (Washington University in St. Louis) of three international conferences that brought together scientists working on various species, all followed by widely read symposium volumes. Stuart's lab has made exceptional contributions to the study of locomotion, and the need to integrate findings from experiments on invertebrates, non-mammalian vertebrates, mammalian tetrapods, non-human primates, and humans.[5]
In his later years, Stuart focused on writing historical articles and reviews on the history of neuroscience in general, and movement neuroscience in particular.[6] [7]
He became a naturalized US citizen in 1961. He was married, and had four children and seven grandchildren.
Almost 100 scientists from across the globe have worked with Stuart as PhD students, post-doctoral trainees or visiting professors. A number of Stuart's post-doctoral trainees are now leading research universities and institutes in the US and worldwide (e.g., Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute,[8] Nicosia, Cyprus; Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Sciences, Ibaraki, Japan; Institute of Biophysics,[9] Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sophia, Bulgaria; Nara Medical University, Yagi, Japan; University of Chicago, IL, USA; University of Washington, Seattle, WA; McGill University, Montreal, Canada; University College, London, UK).