John Pappenheimer

John Richard Pappenheimer (born  October 25, 1915 in New York , †  December 9, 2007 in Cambridge, Massachusetts ) was an American physiologist . He worked from 1949 to 1987 as a professor of physiology at Harvard University and in 1964/1965 as president of the American Physiological Society . In 1965 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences for his research achievements.

Life

John Pappenheimer was born in New York in 1915 and received a BS degree in biology from Harvard University in 1936 . He then went to England , where he obtained his doctorate in physiology in 1940 at Clare College at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Frank Winton (1894–1985) . After his return to the United States, he worked from 1940 to 1942 as a research fellow and lecturer in physiology at Columbia University . From 1942 to 1945 he worked for the Johnson Foundation for Medical Physics at the University of Pennsylvania on breathing and night vision technology for use in military aircraft.

From 1946 he worked at the medical faculty of Harvard University, including from 1949 as assistant professor, from 1953 as full professor and from 1969 to 1987 as George Higginson professor of physiology. In 1964/1965 he served as President of the American Physiological Society. In addition, he was 1971/1972 Visiting Fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge and 1975/1976 George Eastman Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford .

After his retirement , he continued to do research at the University's Concord Field Station , his last scientific publication he published in 2003 at the age of 88. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2007 .

Private and family life

John Pappenheimer, who played the cello , was married to a violinist from 1949 until his death and was the father of two sons and a daughter. In addition to music, his hobbies included cycling, hiking, mountain climbing, gardening, skiing and tennis. His son Will Pappenheimer (* 1954) works as an artist in the field of multimedia and as a professor for digital media at Pace University . His father Alwin M. Pappenheimer senior (1878–1955) worked as a pathologist at Columbia University . His brother Alwin M. Pappenheimer junior , as professor of biology and president of the American Association of Immunologists , and his sister Anne Pappenheimer Forbes (1911–1992), professor of medicine, were also active at Harvard University.

Scientific work

As part of his research, John Pappenheimer devoted himself to investigating permeability , pressure conditions and fluid movements in capillaries , the gas composition in the alveoli and in the respiratory dead space as well as the autoregulation of blood flow and glomerular filtration in the kidney corpuscles . He made further contributions in the field of chemical regulation of breathing , cerebrospinal ion and fluid exchange, and sleep control . After his retirement, he investigated the absorption of sugars and amino acids in the intestines .

Awards

John Pappenheimer was admitted to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1954 and, like his brother eight years later, to the National Academy of Sciences in 1965. He was named a Lifelong Career Investigator by the American Heart Association in 1953 . The American Physiological Society awarded him the Carl J. Wiggers Award in 1971 for his research in the field of cardiovascular physiology and in 1979 the Ray G. Daggs Award for his services to the field of physiology. The British Physiological Society made him an honorary member in 1981.

Works (selection)

• Handbook of Physiology. Various volumes (as a member of the editorial committee from 1961 to 1966 and from 1972 to 1978)
• Membrane Transport: People and Ideas. Bethesda MD 1989 (as co-author)

literature

• Eugene M. Renkin, Charles C. Michel: John Richard Pappenheimer. (1915-2007). Obituary in: The Physiologist. 51 (2) / 2008. American Physiological Society, pp. 79/80, ISSN  0031-9376
• Eugene Renkin: John Richard Pappenheimer. Microcirculatory Society Founding Father (1915-2007). Obituary in: MCS Newsletter. 35 (3) / 2008. Microcirculatory Society, pp. 3/4
• John Richard Pappenheimer (b.1915). In: John R. Brobeck, Orr E. Reynolds, Toby A. Appel: History of the American Physiological Society: The First Century, 1887-1987. American Physiological Society, Bethesda 1987, ISBN 0-68-301067-0 , pp. 181-184
• Bryan Marquard: John R. Pappenheimer, 92; taught physiology at Harvard. Obituary in: Boston Globe . Edition of December 27, 2007, p. E.6

Further publications

• John Pappenheimer: A Silver Spoon. In: Annual Review of Physiology . 49/1987. Annual Reviews, pp. 1–15, ISSN  0066-4278 (autobiographical memoirs)

Web links

• American Physiological Society: John Richard Pappenheimer curriculum vitae (English, with picture)