As she turns 100, 'there's no stopping' trailblazing Montreal neuroscientist Brenda Milner

Brenda Milner has retained an "insatiable curiosity"for life.

Literature, cricket, cheese, The New Yorker magazine, Manchester City's soccer team, and of course, science the world-renowned, Montreal-based neuroscientist is passionate about it all.

As she turns 100 today, sheshows fewsigns of slowing down.

She's "a tireless, eager researcher who has boundless energy,"says Gabriel Leonard, who has worked alongside Milneratthe Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, known as The Neuro, for 45 years.

"There's no stopping her."

Worked alongside Wilder Penfield

Milner shook up the field of neuroscience withher research in the late1950s on how brain injuries affect the ability to create and retain new memories.

However, before hergroundbreaking discovery,she had already lived a lifetime of adventure.

Born Brenda Langford on July 15, 1918, in Manchester in the U.K., she attended Cambridge University at age 18, where she studied experimental psychology.

During the Second World War, she landed a job developing tests for radar operators, which is where she met her future husband, Peter Milner, an electrical engineer turned neuroscientist who died in June, at the age of 99.

There are very few men who could stand up to Brenda.- Gabriel Leonard, longtime colleague

Near the end of the war, Peter Milnergot a job at the Universit de Montral, researching atomic energy.

So the couple left England for Montreal, landing on this side of the Atlantic in 1944.

Brenda Milner completed her PhD at McGill University eight yearslater, in 1952.

She studied patients with epilepsyat the Montreal Neurological Institute, working under famed Montreal neuroscientist and brain surgeon, Wilder Penfield.

Pinpointing where new memories are created

It was at The Neuro that Milner pinpointed the area of the brain that's pivotal for adding things to long-term memory.

She was introduced to a 29-year-old patient named Henry Molaison, who had had a section of his brain removed to preventepileptic seizures.

Dr. Brenda Milner

12 years ago

Duration 5:06

CBC reporter Kelly Crowe talks to McGill University's Dr. Brenda Milner, at age 94, still one of Canada's leading neuroscience researchers

The surgery succeeded in stopping the seizures but it also prevented Molaison, who hailed from Connecticut, from holding on to newly made memories.

Unsure of the reasons for the change in Molaison's memory retention,Milner carried out a series of psychological tests to figure out what was happening.

In one test, she asked Molaison to draw a star while looking at his hand in a mirror. After a few days, he had learned how to draw the shape, but he had no memory of ever having been asked to draw the star in the first place.

He also never remembered meetingMilnerat all.

That tipped her off to the fact thatlong-term memory and motor memory are controlled by different parts ofthe brain.

Published in 1957, Milner'sfinding that the brain's temporal lobe, the section of Molaison's brain that was removed in surgery, is critical in creating new memorieswasgroundbreaking.

But her work hasn't ended there.

In the decades since that discovery, Milner, who is still a professor in the department of neurology and neurosurgery at McGill, has continued at the forefront of research into how people remember.

Among her many accolades, she wonthe Gairdner Awardfor medical research in 2005, also known as a"Baby Nobel," and she was awarded the International Balzan Prize and the accompanying $1 million to fund her research into cognitive neuroscience in 2009.

She was named to the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame in 2012, and earlier this year, she received a medal of honour from the Quebec legislature for her professional accomplishments.

'Many more birthdays' to come

Milner has also never shied away from making her mark in a male-dominated field.

"She's always been able to compete in a man's world, and I think she enjoyed it," said Leonard.

"There are very few men who could stand up to Brenda."

While Milner'sage hasslowed her down somewhat, she still shows up for work atThe Neuro,where she serves as an inspiration to her younger colleagues.

Researchers may sometimes get impatient about making a mark on their respective fields, said Lesley Fellows, another one of Milner'scolleagues.

But when they look at her distinguished, decades-longcareer, "you get the sense that you don't need to have a breakthrough every week," Fellows said.

For her centennialcelebration, Milner plans on having dinner with about 30 of her closest friends.

Her role model, the late Italian neurobiologistRita Levi-Montalcini, lived to be 103, she said in a statement ahead of the big day.

"I'm surprised to find myself at 100 years of age," Milner said."But I have every intention of continuing for many more birthdays."