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35th APS President (1962-1963)
Hymen S. Mayerson
(1900-1985)
Hymen Samuel Mayerson became president in July 1962. Born in Providence,
Rhode Island, he received his education at Brown University (A.B., 1922) and
Yale (Ph.D., 1925). After a year as instructor in physiology, he went to the
Department of Physiology at Tulane University in 1926. He remained there
with increasing responsibilities and rank, serving as chairman from 1945
until his retirement in 1965. After retirement from the university, he
served for ten years as Associate Director for Research and Education of
Touro Infirmary, a large hospital in New Orleans.
Mayerson is best known for his research on lymphatic and capillary
function, especially the factors influencing movement of macromolecules
(protein) from plasma to lymph and the consequences of this process.
Mayerson was elected to APS in 1928. Before his election as president
elect in 1961, he had served on Council since 1957. Also he served on the
Editorial Board of Physiological Reviews (1958-61) and on the
Education Committee (1959-61). For this latter committee, he developed and
operated a Visiting Scientist Program in Mississippi and Texas that was
judged a great success. During his presidency, the APS offices were moved
from Beaumont House to the newly built office building on the Beaumont
campus (later named the Milton O. Lee Building), Physiology for
Physicians began publication, and plans were underway for publication of
the Society's history and the celebration of the Society's seventy-fifth
anniversary at the fall meeting in Coral Gables, Florida. At that meeting,
Mayerson gave a humorous past president's address on physiologists in the
gay nineties. Quoting E. C. Andrus, Mayerson introduced the since
oft-repeated phrase, "There is nothing that gets paster faster than a past
president." After serving as APS president, he took office as president of
FASEB (1963-64). Other service to the Society included the International
Physiology Committee (1961-66), the Finance Committee (1964-67; chairman,
1965-67), and the Senior Physiologists Committee (1971-80; chairman,
1977-80).
In 1979 Mayerson was honored by a symposium in his name on capillary
permeability and mechanisms of transport at the APS Fall Meeting in New
Orleans. Mayerson, who was unable to attend because of illness, contributed
a paper entitled "A Chance to Reminisce" which he began, "Fellow
capillarians and lymphomaniacs-greetings!" He briefly reviewed the
background of his own contributions to the subject with appropriate and
charming reference to the work of his colleagues. Mayerson is remembered as
an excellent teacher, with an unflappable demeanor and wonderful sense of
humor, who was always read to give of himself for others.
Selected Publications
1. Fenn, W. O. History of the American Physiological Society: The
Third Quarter Century, 1937-1962. Washington, DC: Am. Physiol. Soc.,
1963, p. 53-54.
2. Mayerson, H. S. Physiology and physiologists in the gay nineties.
Physiologist 6: 328- 348, 1963.
3. Mayerson, H. S. A time to reminisce. Physiologist 23(1): 41-43,
1980.
4. Taylor, A. E. Dr. Mayerson, the scientist. Physiologist 23(1):
38-40, 1980.
5. Wasserman, K. Professor H. S. Mayerson, Ph.D. - the man.
Physiologist 23(1): 35-37, 1980.
6. Wasserman, K. 35th President, Hymen Samuel Mayerson (1900-1985).
Physiologist 29: 197, 1986.
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