Siegfried Thomas Bok

Siegfried Thomas Bok

Siegfried Thomas Bok (born March 19, 1892 in Knollendam ; † January 4, 1964 in Naarden ) was a Dutch neurologist .

Life

Siegfried Thomas was the son of Johannes Bok (born January 23, 1864 in Dokkum; † around 1910/14 in Amsterdam) and his wife Trijntje Rosier (born January 11, 1863 in Dokkum; † May 17, 1940 in Wassenaar). He had attended the Higher Civic School in Amsterdam, began studying medicine at the University of Amsterdam in 1909 and during this time worked at the Dutch Central Institute for Brain Research in Amsterdam under the direction of Cornelius Ubbo Ariëns Kappers . On April 3, 1916 he passed his medical exam and then worked as an assistant doctor to Leendert Bouwman (born May 23, 1869 in Nieuw-Beijerland; † February 25, 1936 in Utrecht) at the Valerius Clinic in Amsterdam. Here he worked on the topic of the embryonic development of the nuclei and the orbital systems of the elongated spinal cord and the laws that govern this development. The results of these studies were awarded a prize by the University of Groningen and led to the theory of stimulated fibrillation . On March 28, 1922, Bok received his doctorate in Amsterdam on the subject of Over de ontogenese van het ruggemergsreflexapparaat met de centrale verhoudingen van de nervus sympathicus (German: On the ontogenesis of the spinal cord reflex apparatus with the central relationships of the sympathetic nerve ) and followed Bouwman to the University of Utrecht in 1924 where he found a position as a curator of anatomy.

Two years later he moved to the Willem Arntz Hoeve psychiatric clinic in Den Dolder as a prosector . During this time he discovered the interactions between the structure and function of the cerebral cortex. On July 19, 1929, he received a call to the professorship of histology and microscopic anatomy at the University of Leiden , which task he took on on October 30, 1929 with the inaugural speech Wiskunde en weefselleer (German: Mathematics and tissue theory ). During the Second World War , as well as the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945), he had to resign from his professorship when the Leiden University was closed on January 28, 1943. However, he illegally continued the education of the students, therefore had to spend a time in German captivity and was later one of the people who were taken hostage after an assassination attempt in early 1944. He then stayed in the Herzogenbusch concentration camp for some time and returned to Leiden after the war, where he took up his professorship again on August 28, 1945.

After working for several years as Prosekretär in the academic Senate, he was elected in the Academy year 1950/51 to the rector of the alma mater , which he at the 376th anniversary of the Leiden University on February 8, 1951, the Rektoratsrede Hersenschors en lichaamsvorm (German: cerebral cortex and Body shape ). On July 9, 1952, Bok was appointed director of the brain institute in Amsterdam and was therefore employed as an associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Amsterdam, which he did on June 1, 1953 with the speech De sturende taak van het zenuwstelsel (German: The controlling task of the nervous system ) took over. During these years he mainly worked in the field of cybernetics , on which publications appeared. At the age of 70, he retired from his professorship on September 1st, 1962 and he spent his last lifetime in Naarden. In 1945 Bog was a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences , became a Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion in 1958 and was in command of the Belgian Order of Leopold II.

family

Bog married on May 15, 1916 in Amsterdam with Wilhelmina de Vos (born December 14, 1891 in Amsterdam; † January 11, 1977 in Naarden), the daughter of Pieter de Vos (born December 28, 1860 in Enkhuizen; † 10. August 1936 in Hilversum) and his wife Arnoldina Johanna Duker (born March 13, 1861 in Enkhuizen; † January 11, 1937 in Veuten). The marriage resulted in three sons and a daughter. From the children we know:

• Johannes (Jo) Bok (born June 28, 1917 in Doorn; † June 6, 1997 in Dordrecht) married. February 11, 1943 in Wassenaar with Florentine Adrienne von Weiler
• Siegfried Thomas Bok (born June 20, 1921 in Amsterdam; † December 18, 1972 in Hilversum) married. September 16, 1950 with Grietje Helina (Ita) Assies (born March 10, 1923 in Dordrecht; † February 15, 2001 in Haren)
• Arnoldina Johanna Bok (* December 23, 1924 in Amsterdam; † May 7, 1998 in Oegstgeest) m. in Leiden Lucas Eduard Michiel Valk (born March 8, 1919 in Soerabaja, † July 19, 1987 in Eindhoven)
• Pieter Bok (born January 25, 1925 in Nijmegen, † August 8, 1981 in Voorhout) married. February 21, 1946 in Leiden with AJ Krieger

Works (selection)

• Over de ontogenese van het ruggemergsreflexapparaat met de centrale verhoudingen van de nervus sympathicus. Amsterdam 1922
• The central nervous system, the spinal cord. Berlin 1926
• Wiskunde en weefselleer. The Hague 1929
• Central Nervous System Histopathology. Utrecht 1932
• A quantitative analysis of the structure of the cerebral cortex. Amsterdam 1936
• De Gedachtengang van de statistica. Leiden 1946, 1948
• Hersenschors en lichaamsvorm. Leiden 1951
• De sturende taak van het zenuwstelsel. Amsterdam 1953
• Cybernetica (stuurkunde), hoe sturen wij ons leven, ons werk en onze machines? Utrecht 1958, 7th edition 1968
• Histonomy of the cerebral cortex. Amsterdam 1959
• Het ontstaan ​​van het leven. Utrecht 1963

literature

• J. Ariëns Kappers: Levens report ST Bok. In: Jaarboek of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 1963-1964. Amsterdam, pp. 407-412 ( online )
• J. Ariëns Kappers: In memoriam prof. dr. Siegfried Thomas Bok (1892-1964). In: Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneskunde. (NTvG) Amsterdam, 1964, pp. 486-488 ( online )
• Prof. Dr. ST Bok, oud-hoogleraar te Leiden, will vandaag 70 years. In: Leidsch Dagblad. of March 19, 1962, p. 3 ( online ), accessed January 25, 2016
• STADSNIEUWS - DE DRIE NIEUWE HOOGLEERAREN. In: Leidsche Courant. of July 23, 1929, p. 3 ( online ), accessed January 26, 2016

Web links

• Bok in the professorial catalog of the University of Leiden
• Bok entry at the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences
• Bok Genealogielink, accessed January 25, 2016