Steven Rose Obituary

16 July 2025

FENS News, Neuroscience News

Earlier this month, the neuroscience community lost a valued member, Prof. Steven Rose. In honour of Prof. Rose’s contributions to brain research and the vital role he played in the history of both the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) and FENS, we would like to share the following obituary, prepared by Dr. Radmila Mileusnic (Reader in Neurobiology, Open University; retired from 2010) and Dr. John Lagnado (Co-founder, Brain Research Organisation; Honorary BNA Member).

 

Steven Rose (1938-2025)

Professor Steven Rose, the co-founder of the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) and the European Neuroscience Association (ENA), who died on the 9 July 2025 at the age of eighty-seven was a neuroscientist, author, and outspoken promoter of social responsibility in science.

Steven Rose was born in London and was educated at Cambridge (double first-class degree in Biochemistry, 1959). His interest in understanding the memory formation led him to take a PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry in London (1961) and his postdoctoral research at Oxford University (Fellow, New College), University of Rome (NIH fellow), and with the Medical Research Council in London. In 1967, Steven initiated (with John Dobbing, Robert Balazs and John Lagnado) the formation of a London-based brain discussion group which held informal monthly meetings in the upstairs room of the Black Horse pub (in Rathbone Place, London) – hence its name the ‘Black Horse Group’. This was the precursor of the Brain Research Association, later renamed to the British Neuroscience Association. In 1969, after periods of postdoctoral research, he became the UK’s youngest full professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at the newly formed Open University where he established the Brain and Behaviour Research Group (BBRG). His research interest was focused on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of learning and memory, using chicks as a model system. His research transformed our understanding of how the brain learns and remembers and may have implications for diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Steven’s laboratory was a lively international hub of scientist coming from across the globe, from Argentina, France, Spain Italy, former Yugoslavia, Poland, East and West Germany, Republic of China and former USSR.  His research in this area has led to the publication of more than 300 research papers and various international honours and medal awards including the Sechenov and Anokhin Medals (Russia) and the Ariens Kappers medal (The Netherlands). In 2002 he was awarded the Biochemical Society medal for excellence in public communication of science. In 2003 he received the The Lilly BI Award for Best Innovation in Mental Health (Novel Alzheimer’s Therapy).

The remarkable thing about Steven Rose was that, in addition to his eminence as a researcher, he provided leadership for science in many other capacities. Steven was one of the key members of European Science Foundation (ESF) since its inception. He also held the status of visiting professor at the Australian National University, Harvard University, University of Minnesota (Hill Distinguished Visiting Professor) and the Exploratorium in San Francisco (Osher Fellow).  He was a Council member of the Research Defence Society (RDS) and a member of the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS). He served as the President of the Biology Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1996. For many years he was a member of the panel of the BBC Radio4 programme “Moral Maze” discussing conflicting views on the moral issues raised in society at that time.

Beyond his research, Steven Rose was also known for his efforts to make scientific concepts accessible to a broader audience andhad many public debates against genetic determinism. He strongly disagreed with the idea that human behaviour is solely shaped by DNA, arguing that all creatures are in their own ways social creatures shaped not only by their DNA but by their environments, histories, and societies. With his wife Hilary, he co-founded the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science and remained politically active throughout his life, speaking out against the Vietnam War, occupation of Palestine, biological weapons, and the academic normalization of injustice. One of us (JL) vividly recalls Steven’s amazing skills as an orator of conviction on public issues, for example, in a rousing talk he gave at Westminster School in ca. 1970 against the use of chemical warfare against the North Vietnamese (about which he’d co-authored a book).

Over his long academic career, he published more than three hundred research papers and authored 17 books. Some of them were bestsellers like The Chemistry of Life and The Making of Memory, which won the Royal Society Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize in 1993.  One of us (JL) also recalls how, despite all his achievements, Steven was viewed by many as a humorous and exceptionally modest person.

Steven Rose is survived by his wife, the sociologist Hilary Rose, their two sons Simon and Ben, six grandchildren, and his brother Nikolas.