Erik Waaler
Erik Waaler (born February 22, 1903 in Hamar , Norway , † March 3, 1997 in Bergen ) was a Norwegian doctor , known as one of the discoverers of rheumatoid factor (RF).
His father Per Waaler was a doctor and his mother Fredrikke Amalie Rynning Holtermann was a composer and violinist. Waaler studied medicine at the University of Oslo with the degree in 1927. Afterwards he worked in the clinics of Hamar and the University Hospital Oslo (Ullevål) and practiced as a doctor in Hamar in 1929/30. He then spent three years in the bacteriological laboratory of the Norwegian army in Oslo, two years at Aker Hospital and in 1935/36 an assistant doctor at the Reich Hospital in Oslo, where he received his doctorate in 1935 (Studies on the dissociation of the dysentery bacilli) and in the pathology department as Research assistant worked. In 1936/37 he spent about a year at Columbia University in pathological research. Then he was back at the Ulleval University Hospital and from 1938 to 1940 he was a prosector at the Reich Hospital in Oslo. During this time he discovered the rheumatoid factor in 1939. In 1941 he went to the Gade Institute in Bergen and from 1948 until his retirement in 1971 he was professor of anatomical pathology and forensic medicine at the University of Bergen , where he was dean of the medical faculty from 1948 to 1951 and rector from 1954 to 1960.
After him, Charles Ragan and Harry M. Rose , who did not know about his work, rediscovered rheumatoid factor in New York in 1948 . Part of the reason why Waaler's 1940 paper received less attention was that he was too cautious to point out the diagnostic potential of his discovery.
He is co-founder of the Armauer Hansen Research Institute in Addis Ababa , which did research especially on leprosy. He was also instrumental in the selection of the University of Tromsø as the third medical school in Norway after Oslo and Bergen.
In 1959 he became a knight and in 1973 commander of the Order of St. Olav . From 1947 he was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences.
His brother Rolf Waaler (1898-2000) was rector of the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) in Bergen.
Waaler played the violin.
Web links
- Erik Waaler in the norske leksikon store
- Erik Waaler in the Norsk biografisk leksikon
- Hvem er Hvem? - Waaler, Erik in Project Runeberg
- Vinay Joshi, Vivek Poojary: Eric Waaler and Harry M. Rose, Pioneers in Rheumatology (PDF; 0.5 MB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Waaler presented his results in New York, where Rose was also present. But they never met.
- ^ Waaler, On the occurrence of a factor in human serum activating the specific agglutination of sheep blood corpuscules, Acta Path. Microbiol. Scand., Vol. 17, 1940, 172-178
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Waaler, Erik |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Norwegian medic, one of the discoverers of the rheumatoid factor (RF) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 22, 1903 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamar , Norway |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 3, 1997 |
| Place of death | Mountains |