Maureen Berkeley

Maureen was one of the 11 original registered EEG technologists. In the December 1965 issue of The American Journal of Electroencephalographic Technology, Emily Bourne Smith describes Maureen’s personality as ” …at once disciplined and spontaneous, lent one to immediate trust and rapport. This was true for the frightened patient, inexperienced doctor, anxious technician, and uniformed staff … to say nothing of everyday extra-scientific contacts.”

Maureen Berkeley trained at the Queens Square in London on a three-channel galvanometric EEG apparatus. She grew with EEG and its acceptance as a diagnostic method. Every new aspect and possibility of EEG excited her interest, study, and practice. Maureen was very proud to be part of the movement to recognize the good EEG technician (technologist was not a term used in the early days of EEG) as an essential part of excellent electroencephalography.

During World War II, Maureen served with the Royal Air Force. After WWII, her work took her to Canada and the Montreal Neurological Institute. At the time of her death, Maureen was chief EEG technician and teacher at the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

Maureen Berkeley died of cancer on October 3, 1965. “Happily her last year was the fruition of many of her dreams: her work as president of ASET; the foundation of ABRET; and a rewarding marriage with the pleasures of making a home for her husband and his teenage children who adored her. How glad one is to know she had such a full life,” writes Smith in the December 1965 issue of The American Journal of Electroencephalographic Technology, which today continues to be published under its new title, The Neurodiagnostic Journal.

Legacy

The Maureen Berkeley Award was established by ASET in 1966 to perpetuate the dignity, stature, and professional attitude that Maureen Berkeley brought to the profession. The Maureen Berkeley Award is given for the most outstanding educational article or paper written by a neurodiagnostic technologist and published in The Neurodiagnostic Journal. The ASET Editorial Board reviews the technologist-authored articles and papers and prepares a ballot for the ASET Board of Trustees. If no article or paper is deemed worthy of the honor, the award is not presented that year.

Additional Reading

The NIH Record published an article on Maureen Berkeley for their September 21^st, 1965 issue titled Career of Maureen Berkeley, NINDB, Spans 2 Continents.