Thurston Award and Lecture

In honor of Jean Holowach Thurston, MD, a pioneer in child seizure disorders

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Besides epilepsy, Thurston published multiple studies on brain metabolism and neurochemistry that served as a foundation for subsequent research on childhood metabolic disorders. Additionally, she published research papers on gastrointestinal diseases, hypoglycemia, pediatric cancer and, in another pioneering study in The New England Journal of Medicine, Thurston was the first to document in medical literature the association between breath holding and anemia.

Born and raised in Edmonton, Canada, Thurston earned her bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Alberta in Edmonton in 1938 and 1941, respectively. Afterward, she practiced pediatrics in Calgary, Canada, until 1945, when she accepted a two-year fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine. Following the fellowship, Thurston returned to Edmonton to work in a private pediatrics practice before she permanently relocated to St. Louis in 1949 to accept a faculty appointment in the Department of Pediatrics. She became a professor of pediatrics in 1975 and a professor of neurology in 1982. She was named a professor emerita in 1987. However, Thurston continued research, establishing her own neurochemistry lab, publishing her last paper at age 78 and attending professional seminars until a year before her death.

Thurston consulted with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and served as a director of several pediatric clinics and programs. She received dozens of awards, including the Fomon-Peterson Founders Award from the Midwest Society for Pediatric Research in 1990 and the first lifetime achievement award by the Child Neurology Society, in 2004.

Read Dr. Thurston’s obituary published on the Washington University School of Medicine News.