John Olney (1932 – April 14, 2015) was a medical doctor and a professor of psychiatry, pathology, and immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine. He is 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 had campaigned for greater regulation of monosodium glutamate (MSG), aspartame [4] and other excitotoxins for over twenty years. [5] He died at his residence on April 14, 2015 at the age of 83.