Sanford Palay

Sanford Louis "Sandy" Palay (1918–2002) was an American scientist and educator known for his contributions to neuroscience and neuroanatomy. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he earned a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and pursued medicine at Case Western Reserve University, later specializing in neuroscience. During medical school, he conducted research in the Scharrer laboratory, beginning a long professional association with them.

Palay's career was interrupted during World War II when he served in the Army Medical Corps in occupied Japan, sparking a lifelong interest in Japanese art and culture. After the war, he worked at the Rockefeller Institute with Albert Claude on electron microscopy techniques for studying salivary gland chromosomes using formvar replicas.

In 1961, Palay became the Bullard Professor of Neuroanatomy at Harvard Medical School, where he improved methods for preserving central nervous tissue. He and his wife, Victoria Chan-Palay, published influential works, including "Cerebellar Cortex: Cytology and Organization" (1974) and co-authored "The Fine Structure of the Nervous System" (1970), which was updated until 1991.

After retiring from Harvard in 1989, Palay joined Boston College as a distinguished scholar-in-residence, teaching until shortly before his death. He remained active in research and editing, serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Comparative Neurology for fourteen years. His work earned him the Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience in 1982.

Throughout his career, Palay contributed significantly to understanding the nervous system's fine structure and mentored many students, leaving a lasting impact on neuroscience.