She was a Distinguished Professor Emerita and director of the Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California.

Albert Einstein helped him to emigrate to Rochester, NY, where he became head of the Kodak company's optical research laboratories.

More specifically, she studied the neurological bases of American Sign Language extensively, and her work led to the discovery that the left hemisphere of the human brain becomes specialized for language, whether spoken or signed, a striking demonstration of neuronal plasticity.

The search for the underlying biological basis for this disorder is providing new opportunities for understanding how brain structure and function relate to cognitive capabilities.

[4] She conducted much of her research in collaboration with her second husband Edward Klima, a linguist who also specialized in the study of American Sign Language at the University of California San Diego (UCSD).