John Olney is a medical doctor and neuropathologist known for his work on brain damage. He coined the term excitotoxicity[1] in his 1969 paper published in Science.[2] Olney's lesions are named after him. In 1996 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the United States National Academy of Sciences.[3] He has campaigned for greater regulation of monosodium glutamate (MSG), aspartame[4] and other excitotoxins for over twenty years.[5]