Robert Chambers (biologist)

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Robert Warner Chambers (born October 23, 1881 in Erzurum (Turkey), † July 22, 1957 in Concord (New Hampshire)) was an American cell physiologist and biophysicist .

Life

Robert Chambers was born into a missionary parental home in Erzurum, Eastern Turkey. He later lived in Bahçecik ( Kocaeli Province , formerly Bardizag ), a small town near İzmit . His interest in the natural sciences was already evident at the Robert College in Istanbul , which was to determine his further professional life. After graduating from high school in Istanbul, Chambers studied at Queen's University in Kingston (Ontario, Canada), where he obtained his master’s degree. In 1908 he acquired his doctorate at the University of Munich under the aegis of the zoologist Richard von Hertwig and the geneticist Richard Benedikt Goldschmidt . It was here that he became interested in histophysiology and embryology. In 1911 he went to the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole (Massachusetts) as a researcher . From 1912 he taught zoology and embryology at this institute. From 1914/15 his research interest shifted increasingly from zoology to cell physiology. From 1915 to 1928 he worked at Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan . In 1928 he moved from the anatomical faculty in Cornell to the biological faculty at New York University , where he researched and taught until his retirement in 1949. During this time, Chambers became the center of foreign students from Europe, Asia and South America. Robert Chambers died on July 22, 1957 at the age of 75. He was buried in the grave of his first wife Bertha in the Church Street cemetery in Woods Hole.

plant

Chambers was best known as a pioneer in the technique of micrurgy , a micromanipulative surgical method in cell biology: the combination of a microscope with a micromanipulator and its additional devices such as fine needles, pipettes and electrodes enabled operations on microscopic objects such as cells, bacteria or colloid particles . This technique, newly developed by Chambers, has fundamentally expanded microscopic dissection and surgical techniques.

Chambers was actively involved in the management of numerous scientific societies: he was trustee of the MBL, member of the executive committee of the "Long Island Biological Association", president of the American "Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology", the "Harvey Society" and the "Union Of American" Biological Sciences ”and Vice President of the American Society of Anatomists. He was an employee of the "Encyclopedia Britannica" and co-editor of the journal "Protoplasma". He was a member of the "Inter-Society Committee for a National Science Foundation" and worked long and hard with other scientists in the late 1940s to convince the US Congress and President Truman to set up a National Science Foundation. Chambers also played an important role in establishing the New York Academy of Sciences.

Awards

Chambers has received numerous awards for his scientific achievements. He gave his first Harvey Lecture in 1926 on the living cell. He received the "Traill Medal" from the Linnean Society of London and the "John Scott Medal" from the City of Philadelphia. He also received the medal of the Parisian "Academie Nationale de Médecine". He was accepted as a member of the Royal Microscopical Society . In 1944 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Queen's University .

literature

  • Irene P. Golring: Robert Chambers . In: American Zoologist . tape 19 , no. 4 , 1979, p. 1271-1273 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see New York Times of July 23, 1957: Dr. Chambers, 75, Biologist, is dead; Pioneer in Micrurgy Was Inventor of Instruments to Dissect Living Cells X
personal data
SURNAME Chambers, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chambers, Robert Warner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American biologist and cell researcher
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Erzurum , Turkey
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 1957
Place of death Concord , New Hampshire, United States