Swiss Research Institute for High Mountain Climates and Medicine
The Swiss Research Institute for High Mountain Climates and Medicine (SFI) in Davos is a foundation with two research departments:
- Physical-Meteorological Observatory Davos and World Radiation Center (PMOD / WRC)
- Swiss Institute for Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF)
history
As early as 1905, the pulmonary specialist Karl Turban applied to the Davos Doctors' Association to set up a research institute to examine the various healing factors and their effects on diseases in specialized departments. However, various difficulties delayed this project, so that it was not until March 26, 1922 that the Institute for High Mountain Physiology and Tuberculosis Research in Davos was joined by the Davos Doctors 'Association, the Davos Region, the Canton of Graubünden , the Bündner Doctors' Association, the Swiss Red Cross , the Swiss Society for Balneology and Climatology and the Swiss Society for Natural Sciences was founded. According to the resolution of the Landsgemeinde, a contribution was made to the financing “under the name“ Foundation tax ”for each day of foreigners' stay in Davos that was subject to registration. In the Villa Silvana (today Promenade 111, Davos Platz), rooms were rented for the Institute of Height Physiology. The first president was the Davos landscape doctor Florian Buol (1854–1924). For the research in the field of altitude physiology, the Berlin Adolf Loewy could be won, who had previously carried out extensive altitude physiological studies in the Alps and simulations in the pneumatic cabinet of the Jewish hospital in Berlin.
In 1923, the Physical-Meteorological Observatory (PMOD) founded in 1907 was attached to the SFI, as its founder Carl Dorno had used up his financial resources. With his definitive resignation as director in 1926, the PMOD was completely absorbed by the foundation, but remained operationally largely independent.
From the mid-1920s, the health resort of Davos plunged into a crisis, partly caused by the novel Der Zauberberg by Thomas Mann , published in 1924 . This led to significantly lower income from the aforementioned foundation tax. In addition, it was not possible to prove an influence of the high altitude climate on the course of tuberculosis. When Loewy resigned for health reasons in 1933, the foundation's financial position was uncertain. His successor was Frédéric Roulet, among whom the later Nobel Prize winner Konrad Bloch published his first scientific work. In 1937 he was followed by Walther Berblinger , who had to give up his chair at the University of Jena because of his "non-Aryan" wife. Since the space in the premises of Villa Silvana no longer met the requirements, Villa Fontana was purchased, extensively renovated, an annex was added and modern laboratory facilities were installed. The inauguration of the new location took place on July 21, 1957. In 1961 Ernst Sorkin took over the management of the medical institute. The breakthrough in anti-tuberculosis treatments from the 1960s onwards also led to the institute being renamed the “Swiss Research Institute for High Mountain Climates and Medicine”, and the medical research objectives also broadened. In 1988 the medical department was renamed the “Swiss Institute for Allergy and Asthma Research” (SIAF).
Web links
- Official website of the SFI Foundation
- Official website of the PMOD / WRC institute
- Official website of the SIAF institute
literature
- Felix Suter, Kurt Blaser, Claus Fröhlich: 75 years of the Swiss Research Institute for High Mountain Climates and Medicine. Linksetting, Davos 1997.
- History of the Davos research institutes on wissensstadt.ch