Paul Gyorgy

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Paul Gyorgy , originally György, (born April 7, 1893 in Oradea (Hungarian Nagyvarad), † March 1, 1976 in Morristown (New Jersey) ) was a Hungarian - American pediatrician and nutritionist .

Life

Gyorgy, the son of a Transylvanian family doctor, studied medicine in Berlin , Munich , Geneva and Budapest . He received his doctorate in medicine in Budapest in 1915 and was assistant to Ernst Moro from 1920 and senior physician at the University Children's Clinic in Heidelberg from 1926. In 1923 he completed his habilitation and in 1927 became an associate professor. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, he was expelled as a Jew (he resigned because of the political situation by writing to the university in April) and went to Cambridge University (Nutrition Laboratory) with his wife and three children. In 1935 he was visiting professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland in Ohio (from 1937 Associate Professor) and from 1944 Associate Professor and 1946 Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. 1950 to 1957 he was chief physician for pediatrics at the University Hospital and 1957 to 1963 at the Philadelphia General Hospital. In 1963 he retired.

In 1933 he presented vitamin B2 ( riboflavin ) in crystalline form with Theodor Wagner-Jauregg in Richard Kuhn's laboratory in Heidelberg . In 1931 he discovered biotin (which he called vitamin H, H for skin because of the typical skin lesions in case of deficiency) and in 1934 vitamin B6 ( pyridoxine ). For this he received the National Medal of Science in 1975 .

Early in his career, he looked at the connection between infection control (especially against staphylococci) in babies and breastfeeding by the mother. The intestinal flora (mainly the Lactobacillus Bifidobacterium bifidum) of breastfed babies and their role in nutrition (factors in breast milk that promote bacterial growth) fascinated him later in his career as a research subject, where he worked again with Richard Kuhn . In Heidelberg he investigated the causes of rickets (where he distinguished calcium deficiency from deficiency in phosphorus) and tetany in newborns. He was one of the most important students of the Heidelberg pediatrician Ernst Moro . He later investigated the role of the various components of the vitamin B complex. He also looked at diet-related kidney and liver damage. In the past 20 years he has also been active in promoting healthy nutrition for children around the world, particularly in Southeast Asia, partly within the framework of WHO and UNICEF .

In 1954 he received the Boden Award for Nutrition and in 1968 the Howland Award from the American Pediatric Society . In 1958 he received an honorary doctorate in Heidelberg. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an honorary member of the German Pediatric Society and "External Scientific Member" of the Max Planck Society . In 1975 he received the National Medal of Science for Biology.

His hobbies were classical music (he was one of the sponsors of the Lehigh University Bach Festival ), painting (he painted himself), and gardening (he had over 3000 daffodils in his garden). He had been married to Margaret John since 1920 and had three sons with her. She also supported him at the beginning of his career in the laboratory.

Fonts

  • Pediatric textbook, Springer Verlag 1933
  • Editor: Vitamin Methods, Academic Press, from 1950
  • Editor with William Henry Sebrell: The Vitamins, Academic Press, from 1967

literature

  • LA Barness, RM Tomarelli Paul György (1893-1976). A biographical sketch , Journal of Nutrition, Volume 109, 1979, pp. 17-23, pdf

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wolfgang U. Eckart : Ernst Moro (1874-1951) and the "Golden Years" of Heidelberg Pediatrics , in: Georg F. Hoffmann , Wolfgang U. Eckart , Philipp Osten (Ed.): Developments and perspectives of children's and adolescent medicine. 150 Years of Pediatrics in Heidelberg , Kirchheim Verlag Mainz 2010, pp. 57–76, on Paul György pp. 67–68, ISBN 978-3-87409-489-4 , Paul György online resource

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gyorgy, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian-American medic (pediatric) and nutritionist
DATE OF BIRTH April 7, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Oradea (Hungarian Nagyvarad)
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1976
Place of death Morristown, New Jersey