Given the dearth of knowledge of infant pain at that time, it was exhilarating to undertake research in this field in the 1980s. The multidisciplinary nature of this field was evident from the beginning; my background in developmental psychology was ideal, as complementary to other researchers in the field. Maria Fitzgerald, a developmental biologist, was in the forefront of discovering and elucidating the neurobiology of early pain in immature rodents and human neonates, 1,2 and continues to lead this field. Anand (pediatric critical care medicine) published the landmark study showing neonates benefit from anesthesia during surgery, 3 and Celeste Johnston 4 (nursing) began to address infant pain measurement. Ken Craig-a clinical psychologist-was already a well-established expert in facial action coding in adult pain. As his PhD student, together we applied facial coding principles to newborns, developing the first quantitative reliable validated measure of behavioral reactivity to pain in infants. 5,6 At that time, the Neonatal Facial Coding System (NFCS) was viewed as the gold standard for infant pain, comprising objective-specific discrete facial movements and sleep-wake state changes. The NFCS substantively influenced the field of infant pain assessment, as the NFCS core facial actions and sleep/wake state coding became incorporated into many of the multifactorial scales which followed, for example the Premature Infant Pain Profile. 7
| Personal timelineModern high technology intensive care for extremely preterm infants was established in the early 1980s. I completed my PhD in 1985, and became the first psychologist in the newly founded Neonatal Follow-up Program at BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver. Our Research Institute was incorporated in 1995 in conjunction with the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the BC Children's and Women's Hospitals. I was invited to join as a clinical researcherawarded one day a week "protected time" for research in 1996-1998. As of 1999, I was very fortunate to receive a series of highly competitive salary awards continuing to this day. In 2001, I moved from