Susan Leeman, 95, Dies; Explored How the Brain Influences the Body

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1. Kick

When she returned to Harvard Medical School in 1972, it was “one of the worst chapters in her career,” her daughter Eve, a psychiatrist, said in an interview. “She was recruited with the promise of a tenure-track position, but when she got there she faced an enormous amount of discrimination.”

Male colleagues would ask her to run errands for the department, her daughter said, in an effort to demean her.

Finally, in 1980, the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester offered her a full professorship. It was 50 miles from her home, but she accepted.

In 1992, Boston University appointed her professor of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics and named her director of the neuropeptide laboratory.

Dr. Leeman’s curiosity never waned, and “she retired incredibly late” — at nearly 90, her daughter Jennifer said. “She had a very long career and loved thinking about science and all the experiments she could be doing.”