Irene Löwenfeld

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Irene Löwenfeld , also Irene Loewenfeld , (* 1922 in Munich ; † October 9, 2009 in New York ) was a German-American scientist and, together with Otto Löwenstein, a pioneer in the field of research on the human pupil .

Irene Löwenfeld came from a Jewish family of lawyers. Her grandfather was the Munich law professor Theodor Löwenstein , her father Philipp Löwenfeld was a lawyer and a well-known social democrat . In 1933 Philipp Löwenfeld narrowly escaped the Gestapo and fled to Zurich . A year later he was followed by his wife Lottie, née Winkler, and his three daughters Anna, Irene and Eva.

In 1938 the Löwenfeld family emigrated to New York via Le Havre . During a walk on the beach, Irene Löwenfeld, who, according to her own later statements, had not continued her school attendance because of her poor English, was hit by a frisbee and from then on suffered from pain, which she interpreted in retrospect as psychosomatic . She was treated by Otto Löwenstein, a German doctor who had also emigrated to the USA. Löwenstein recognized that Irenes Löwenfeld's problem was intellectual deficiency and in 1940 offered her a job as a laboratory assistant . She then took the necessary exams to take university courses.

In 1955 Otto Löwenstein was rehabilitated as a professor at the University of Bonn . He was able to accept Irene Löwenfeld as a doctoral student in Bonn, and she did her doctorate externally in Bonn on reflex dilatation of the pupil. In 1956, Löwenstein and Löwenfeld began working together on a basic work on the human pupil. Otto Löwenstein died in 1965 before the publication was completed. In 1973, Löwenfeld was appointed professor of ophthalmology at the Kresge Eye Institute, Wayne State University . Here she completed the book, which was published for the first time in 1993 with a length of more than 2000 pages in two volumes: The Pupil: Anatomy, Physiology, and Clinical Applications , Iowa State University Press, Wayne State University Press Her research documents are today still in the Irene E. Loewenfeld Neuro-Ophthalmology Collection.

Honors

Since 1999, the International Pupil Colloquium, which she and Löwenstein co-founded in 1961, have held the Loewenfeld Lecture every two years in her memory .

literature

  • B. Wilhelm, H. Wilhelm: Irene Löwenfeld died on October 9, 2009 in New York . In: Clinical monthly sheets for ophthalmology . tape 226 , no. 11 , November 13, 2009, p. 944-944 , doi : 10.1055 / s-0028-1109879 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Irene E Loewenfeld in the 1940 Census. ancestry.com, accessed November 15, 2013 .
  2. ↑ a b Irene Loewenfeld, PhD Physiologist of the Pupil. Retrieved November 15, 2013 .
  3. ↑ a b c B. Wilhelm, H. Wilhelm: Irene Löwenfeld died on October 9, 2009 in New York . In: Clinical monthly sheets for ophthalmology . tape 226 , no. 11 , November 13, 2009, p. 944-944 , doi : 10.1055 / s-0028-1109879 .
  4. ↑ to the collection
  5. ↑ des Colloquium  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / sites.google.com  
  6. ^ Loewenfeld Lecture
personal data
SURNAME Löwenfeld, Irene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Loewenfeld, Irene Elizabeth (full name, American spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American scientist
DATE OF BIRTH 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 2009
Place of death New York City