W. Maxwell Cowan

William Maxwell Cowan (27 September 1931 – 30 June 2002) was a South African neuroscientist known for his work on developmental plasticity and neural connectivity. He is credited with helping to contribute to the growth of modern neuroanatomy through his use of novel anterograde tracing techniques which fundamentally transformed the field in the 1970s. From 1978–2002 Cowan was the founding editor of the Annual Review of Neuroscience. Cowan was vice-president and chief scientific officer of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1987 until his retirement in 2000.

Early life and education

William Maxwell Cowan was born to Scottish parents in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 27 September 1931. In the 1920s, Cowan's family, who previously worked in the shipbuilding industry in Scotland, emigrated to South Africa to look for mining jobs in Transvaal Province after the British government closed many of their shipyards in Glasgow during a peacetime downturn. Growing up in Johannesburg, Cowan attended Germiston High School and graduated at the age of 15. Cowan was unsure as to what he would do after graduation, as nobody in his family had ever attended university. It was decided that he would apprentice at a local law firm and attend law school part time. However, when the firm discovered how young he was, they asked Cowan's family to enroll him at University of the Witwatersrand for at least one year, where he would study prelaw with the goal of specialising in real estate law.