Dr. Brenda Milner - Academics

Before receiving her master's degree, Brenda met husband-to-be, Peter Milner, an electrical engineer who had also been recruited for the war effort. Peter was invited to Canada to work with physicists on atomic research. So, unexpectedly, Brenda and Peter were married and spent a long journey overseas which landed them in Montreal, Quebec.

Brenda persuaded Donald Hebb, Chair of Psychology at McGill (and Great Canadian Psychologist!) to accept her as a graduate student in 1949. Soon afterwards, Hebb called in a promise made by Wilder Penfield to take one graduate student at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), with Brenda in mind. Dr. Penfield accepted Brenda and by 1950, Brenda "knew immediately that this was the kind of work I wished to pursue, whatever the practical difficulties".