|
|
29th APS President (1956-1957)
Alan C. Burton
(1904-1979)
Alan Chadburn Burton, a member of Council since 1953, was elected
president elect in 1955 at the meeting in San Francisco and began service as
president in 1956. He was the second Canadian to hold that office. (J. J. R.
Macleod was president in 1921-22.)
Born in London, England, he received his B.Sc. degree from University
College (London) in physics in 1925. His M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, also in
physics, were from the University of Toronto (1929 and 1932). He held a
series of fellowships from the National Research Council of Canada
(1928-32), the University of Rochester (1932-34), the Rockefeller Foundation
(1934-37), and the Johnson Foundation (1937-40). He was elected to APS in
1937. It was during his postdoctoral fellowships that he was attracted to
physiology through his interest in skin temperature and heat exchange. This
led him to wartime work in aviation medical research under assignment by the
Canadian National Research Council. After the war, he joined the Department
of Medical Research at the University of Western Ontario, where he became
professor of biophysics in 1948.
In addition to the presidency of APS, Burton served as president of the
Federation (1957-58) (of which he initiated a reorganization) and of the
Canadian Physiological Society (1959), the Canadian Federation of Biological
Societies (1963), and the Biophysical Society (1966).
During his president elect tour, Burton discussed changes in APS that he
thought would prove necessary when the membership exceeded 3,000. (This
number was reached in 1967.) Included in his proposals for change were the
institution of several meetings per year similar to the APS fall meeting and
a Society news publication. During his term, the decision was made to
convert the "President's News Letter" into The Physiologist. The
first issue contained Burton's past president's address, "The human side of
the physiologist, prejudice and poetry," which included three of his
original poems. Also during his term as president, the associate member
category was approved by Council for submission to the membership.
Selected Publications
1. Burton, A. C. The human side of the physiologist, prejudice and
poetry. Physiologist 1(1): 1-5, 1957.
2. Burton, A. C. Variety - the spice of science as well as of life: the
disadvantages of specialization. Annu. Rev. Physiol. 37: 1-12, 1975.
3. Fenn, W. O. History of the American Physiological Society: The
Third Quarter Century, 1937-1962. Washington, DC: Am. Physiol. Soc.,
1963, p. 37-41.
4. Groom, A. C. Alan Chadburn Burton (1904-1979). Physiologist
23(1): 17-18, 1980.
5. Groom, A. C. Alan Chadburn Burton: biophysicist extraordinary.
Physiologist 28: 66- 68, 1985.
|
|
