Gerald M. Edelman

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Gerald M. Edelman (2010)

Gerald Maurice Edelman (born July 1, 1929 in New York City , † May 17, 2014 in La Jolla , California ) was an American physician , biochemist and molecular biologist ( immunology , neuroscience ).

In 1972 he and Rodney R. Porter received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries in the field of the chemical structure of antibodies .

Career

Edelman studied chemistry (Bachelor 1950) and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (MD 1954) at Ursinus College , was 1954/55 at Massachusetts General Hospital (House Officer), 1955 to 1957 captain in the US Army Medical Corps and was 1960 at the Rockefeller Institute (where he was a student of Henry G. Kunkel from 1957 ) received his doctorate in biochemistry. He then stayed at Rockefeller University, where he was Associate Dean of Graduate Studies from 1963 to 1966 and became a professor in 1966 (from 1978 Vincent Astor Professor). In 1991 he became head of the neurobiology department at the Scripps Research Institute . He was the founder (1981) and director of the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla .

In addition to his research on immunology , Edelman, who turned to neuroscience from around 1972, created theories on human consciousness and the so-called Neural Group Selection Theory , which describes developmental processes in the brain .

In several books he developed ideas of mind and consciousness, according to which both are to be understood as highly complex processes within the brain and can be understood as completely material and purely biological phenomena. In his theory, the development of mind and consciousness can be understood and described within Darwin's ideas of natural selection and the development of populations. He rejected dualistic ideas and hypotheses , as well as the computer model of the mind .

He has received several honorary doctorates (including Siena, Paris, Naples, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University) and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1968), the National Academy of Sciences (1969), the American Philosophical Society (1977) and the Académie des sciences (1978). In 1965 Edelman received the Eli Lilly Award .

Fonts

  • Structure and Function of Antibodies , Scientific American, Volume 223, 1970, Issue 2
    • Antibody structure. Mainz / Wiesbaden 1974.
  • Topobiology , Scientific American, May 1980
    • Topobiology. In: Spectrum of Science. Volume 7, 1989, pp. 52-60.
  • Cell-adhesion molecules: a molecular basis for animal form , Scientific American 1984, issue 4
  • Neural Darwinism: The Theory of Neuronal Group Selection. Basic Books 1987
  • Topobiology: An Introduction to Molecular Embryology. Basic Books 1993
  • Our brain, a dynamic system. Piper 1993
  • Divine air, destructive fire. Piper 1995
  • Brain and mind. How consciousness arises from matter. CH Beck, 2002, ISBN 3-406-48836-6
  • The light of the mind. Walter-Verlag 2004, ISBN 3-530-42182-0
  • Second Nature - Brain Science and Human Knowledge. New Haven / London 2006

literature

  • Urs Rutishauser: Gerald Edelman (1929–2014). In: Nature . Volume 510, No. 7506, 2014, p. 474, doi: 10.1038 / 510474a
  • Giulio Tononi: Gerald M. Edelman (1929-2014). In: Science . Volume 344, No. 6191, 2014, p. 1457, doi: 10.1126 / science.1257185
  • Urs Rutishauser: Gerald Edelman (obituary) . In: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society . tape 159 , no. 4 , 2015, p. 461-466 .

Web links

Commons : Gerald Edelman  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerald Edelman, Nobel laureate, dies , obituary on utsandiego.com , May 20, 2014.
  2. ^ Gisela Baumgart: Edelman, Gerald Maurice. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 334.
personal data
SURNAME Edelman, Gerald M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Edelman, Gerald Maurice (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American medic
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH new York
DATE OF DEATH 17th May 2014
Place of death La Jolla