|
|
38th APS President (1965-1966)
John M. Brookhart
(1913-1995)
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, John Brookhart completed both his undergraduate
and his graduate studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He had
intended to become a physician. In his senior year in college, however, he
was introduced to experimental science by Alvalyn Woodward by way of an
elective problem course. As a result, he enrolled in Robert Gesell's
department as a graduate student in physiology and received his master's
degree in 1936 and his Ph.D. in 1939. The following year he was a
postdoctoral fellow in S. W. Ranson's Institute of Neurology at Northwestern
University in Chicago. He then joined successively the faculties of Loyola
University School of Medicine (1940-46), University of Illinois College of
Medicine (1946-47), and the Department of Physiology at Northwestern
University Medical School (1947- 49). In 1949 he became an associate
professor in the Department of Physiology of the University of Oregon
Medical School in Portland, where he served only three years before being
appointed professor and chairman of the department (1952-79). This was
followed by four years (1979-83) as Acting Vice-President for Academic
Affairs, Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland.
Brookhart has identified Robert Gesell and S. W. Ranson as important
preceptors in his development as a scientist. He moved from Gesell's
laboratory to Ranson's at a time when both of these senior physiologists
were interested in neural control of pulmonary ventilation and had come to
contrary conclusions on how the central control mechanisms are organized.
Before he left Michigan, Brookhart had written a paper on the respiratory
effects of faradic stimulation of the medulla oblongata (2). But when he
reached Chicago, instead of going on with this research, he was asked to
collaborate with Fred Day in the study of possible neural control of
reproduction (3). During the war years he temporarily left neurophysiology
and participated with others in studies of cardiac functions influenced by
respiration (4). Later, in other settings, he returned to studies of the
nervous system, where his interest was fostered by association with H. W.
Magoun of Northwestern and G. Moruzzi, a neurophysiologist from Pisa, Italy,
who collaborated with Magoun. Of his early laboratory experience, Brookhart
wrote,"In truth, this business of research training never ceases and is
really a continuous process for as long as one continues to be active."
Then, after mentioning the names of Gesell, Ranson, Moruzzi, and Magoun, he
added:
"Theodore Boyd [his chairman at Loyola] probably shaped me more importantly
in a number of ways. We worked together during the war years in a poorly
supported, poorly equipped, poorly housed small medical school. The teaching
load was exceedingly heavy because of the increase in class size and the
paucity of faculty members. Nevertheless I learned from him the value of
patient persistence, the rewards of doing things for oneself, and ways of
analyzing problems to select the best solution. . . . It was an influence on
general attitudes and habits that certainly impacted my life as a
scientist."
From the year of his first appointment to a National Institutes of Health
(NIH) study section (physiology, 1951-55), Brookhart served on a succession
of committees and councils, and as a consultant, to NIH, the National
Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, NSF, and the Officer of
Naval Research. For two terms (1959-62 and 1976-79) he was a member of the
Physiology Test Committee of the National Board of Medical Examiners. In
many of these appointments he represented neurophysiology or psychobiology,
but he also provided a more generalized type of counsel (e.g., on the
Advisory Council on Health Research Facilities for NIH, 1967-71). His
participation in international scientific organizations is of long standing.
In 1965 he was a delegate to the General Assembly of IUPS in Tokyo, Japan,
as he was again at the IUPS Congress in 1968 in Washington, D.C., in 1971 in
Munich, and in 1974 in New Delhi, India. From 1969 to 1975 he was a member
of the U.S. National Committee of IUPS. Then for six years (1974-80) he was
treasurer and a member of the Executive Committee of the parent
organization, IUPS. After the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO)
was formed in 1961, Brookhart was a member of the Central Council (1966-68
and 1974-77).
Among other honors he has received, Brookhart was elected a fellow of
AAAS (Boston) in 1967. Ten years earlier he had been a Fulbright Research
Scholar at the University of Pisa (1956-57) and had been elected to foreign
membership in the Accademia delle Science dell' Instituto di Bologna. In
1974 he was the first recipient of the Ray G. Daggs Award of APS.
Brookhart's contributions to the Society have been in three somewhat
different types of office. He was a member of Council (1960-64) and
continued there as president elect, president and past president until 1967.
During this time (1961) the Society's constitution was revised to limit the
independence of the Board of Publication Trustees and to establish the
Council-dependent Finance and Publications Committees. Secondly, Brookhart
was a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurophysiology
(1960-64) and thus was involved in negotiations for purchase of that journal
from Yale University and Charles C Thomas in 1961. For the following ten
years (1964-74), a period when its eminence among scientific journals became
firmly established, Brookhart was chief editor of the Journal of
Neurophysiology. He was associated with the Handbook of Physiology
as a member of the Editorial Board (1967- 72). With Vernon B. Mountcastle,
he organized the first revision of the Handbook of Physiology section
on the nervous system. Finally, as chairman of the Finance Committee for APS
for six years (1967-73), Brookhart assisted in a reorganization of the
Society's business operations, which he described as follows:
"During several years as a member of Council, I learned a lot about the
interrelations between the Federation (Federation of American Societies of
Experimental Biology, FASEB) and the APS. At that time, all APS financial
transactions, except those related to the Publications Contingency and
Reserve Fund, were carried out through the FASEB Business Office on a
fee-for-service basis. The income to the Society and publications operating
accounts was received by the Federation, and disbursements were made by the
Federation. Because of the periodicity of dues and subscription collections,
sizable amounts would accumulate in these accounts for eventual payout over
the year. The Federation Executive Director and the Comptroller looked upon
this . . . as money controlled by the Federation. . . . Annual reports were
quite unsatisfactory. Any income from the short-term investment of these
collections was credited to Federation accounts. Since we were dealing with
annual turnovers approximating a million dollars, this income could have
been a significant source of revenue for the Society. . . ."
"With vigouous and persistent effort on the part of Ray Daggs, Council
was persuaded to plan during 1963-64 for the creation of its own business
office and for discontinuing the use of the Federation's services. This was
brought into being during my term as president. . . . The transition was
smooth from the point of view of the APS, [and] I don't know of anyone who
thinks now that we erred. The APS Business Office has provided the Society
with greatly improved control and accounting, and the cost of the new
operation . . . was more than made up by income from prudent short-term
investments. The important result has been that the APS has had the
financial flexibility to engage in a number of innovative activities that
would otherwise have been impossible."
As his bibliography indicates, from the time he left the influence of the
Ranson laboratory and that of Boyd, Brookhart's interests have been focused
on the central nervous system in particular, on the control of skeletal
muscle. He wrote:
"My research interests have centered primarily on ways in which the
brain's functions are manifested in motor neuronal output. . . . The early
studies of respiratory control, the venture into hypothalamic influences on
mating behavior, the inquiry into some of the characteristics of the
corticospinal system, the intracellular study of frog motor neurons, and
finally, the last several years of work with postural control mechanisms all
fit this basic formula. The various projects were all exciting and fun for
different reasons. The one common characteristic is the residue of
continuing friendship and affection that remains as a result of the
professional collaboration and sharing of ideas and labor during the work."
Friends who served on Council or on major committees of APS while
Brookhart was in any of his several offices know how well his devotion and
good judgement served the Society and its journals. As a neurophysiologist
he is recognized for the progress the Journal of Neurophysiology made
under his guidance and respected for the care and imagination he focused on
the problem of control of skeletal muscle.
Selected Publications
1. Brookhart, J. M., E. H. Steffensen, and R. Gesell. Stellate ganglia
and breathing. Am. J. Physiol. 115: 357-363, 1936.
2. Brookhart, J. M. Respiratory effects of localized faradic stimulation
of the medulla oblongata. Am. J. Physiol. 129: 709-723, 1940.
3. Brookhart, J. M., F. L. Day, and S. W. Ranson. The abolition of mating
behavior by hypothalamic lesions in guinea pigs. Endocrinology 28:
561-565, 1941.
4. Brookhart, J. M., and T. E. Boyd. Local differences in intrathoracic
pressure and their relation to cardiac filling pressure in the dog. Am.
J. Physiol. 148: 434-444, 1947.
5. Brookhart, J. M., G. Moruzzi, and R. S. Snider. Spike discharges of
single units in the cerebellar cortex. J. Neurophysiol. 13: 465-486,
1950.
6. Zanchetti, A., and J. M. Brookhart. Measurement of electrical
responsiveness of cortico-spinal efferents in cat and monkey. J.
Neurophysiol. 18: 288-298, 1955.
7. Brookhart, J. M., A. Arduini, M. Mancia, and G. Moruzzi.
Thalamocortical relations as revealed by induced slow potential changes.
J. Neurophysiol. 21: 499-525, 1958.
8. Brookhart, J. M., and E. Fadiga. Potential fields initiated during
monosynaptic activation of frog motor neurons. J. Physiol. Lond. 150:
633-655, 1960.
9. Kubota, K., and J. M. Brookhart. Recurrent facilitation of frog motor
neurons. J. Neurophysiol. 26: 877-893, 1963.
10. Brookhart, J. M., S. Mori, and P. J. Reynolds. Postural reactions to
two directions of displacement in dogs. Am. J. Physiol. 218: 719-725,
1970.
11. Brookhart, J. M., and R. E. Talbott. The postural response of normal
dogs to sinusoidal displacement. J. Physiol. Lond. 243: 287-307,
1974.
12. Mirka, A., and J. M. Brookhart. Role of primary visual cortex in
canine postural control. J. Neurophysiol. 46: 987-1003, 1981.
After Brookhart's retirement in 1983, he continued to be friend and
benefactor of the Physiology Department at the Oregon Health Sciences
University. John M. Brookhart died of causes related to age on December 30,
1995, in Portland, Oregon.
|
|
