Department of Cell Biology

About Dr. Hines:

Marion Hines

Dr. Marion Hines served as Interim Chair of the Department of Cell Biology (then Anatomy) at the Emory University School of Medicine from 1956-1957.  Dr. Hines was born in Carthage, MO in 1889.  She was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Smith College and obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.  She then joined the faculty of the University of Chicago as an Instructor and became  Assistant Professor of Anatomy in 1924.   From 1925-1947 Dr. Hines was an Associate Professor of Anatomy at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.  In 1947 Dr. Hines moved to Emory University, becoming Professor of Experimental Anatomy.  She served as Interim Chair from 1956-1957 and retired from Emory as Professor Emeritus in 1959.    Dr Hines died in Atlanta in 1982 at the age of 93. 

Dr. Hines’ research was in the fields of Anatomy and Neurobiology.  She was widely known for her studies of the brain’s control of movement for which she employed such varied model systems as human, primates, lizards, boas and platypus.  Her work helped to describe the nature of muscle paralysis and the stiffness associated with strokes in the cerebral cortex.  Dr. Hines was a member of the American Association of Anatomists where she served as Vice President from 1946-1948 and represented the association on the National Research Council from 1948-1954.  She was also a member of the American Physiological Society, the American Neurological Association, and the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Diseases.  She served on the boards of the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease and the Journal of Neurophysiology.

We celebrate these many achievements of Dr. Marion Hines at a time when women were extremely rare on the faculty of medical schools.  To have reached the rank of Professor and to have served as the Chair of a medical school department in the 1950’s were truly remarkable accomplishments and a testament to Dr. Hines’ character and abilities.