Benjamin Kaminer
May 1, 1924 - December 13, 2003
As printed on the The Marine
Biological LaboratoryTM Website
Dr. Benjamin Kaminer of Woods
Hole and a MBL Corporation Member died on December 13 of cancer at age 80.
He was the husband of Freda (Shnitke) Kaminer to whom he was married for 55
years. Born in Slonim, Poland, his family emigrated to South Africa when he
was six. In 1946 he received his medical degree from the University of
Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He completed a Diploma in Child Health at
the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in London, where he then
practiced pediatrics and was a research associate.
On returning
to South Africa temporarily, he served as a senior lecturer and
administrator in the Department of Physiology at the Medical School of the
University of Witwatersrand and was a dean of the residence for African
medical students. His interests led him to heart muscle research at that
time. Because of their strong opposition to the existing apartheid
government of South Africa, the Kaminers continued to feel that they could
not remain on there.
Through a
Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, Dr. Kaminer, accompanied by his wife and
children, came to Woods Hole in 1959 to work with Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
at the Institute for Muscle Research at the Marine Biological Laboratory.
He continued on there for the next ten years as a year round independent
investigator. His interests in the biochemistry and biophysics of muscle
contraction meshed well with those emerging at the MBL. After moving to
the Boston area, his involvement with the MBL continued. Returning each
summer as an investigator, he studied calcium-regulated processes in the sea
urchin for a number of years. He had been chairman of the MBL's Instruction
Committee, and served on the MBL Executive Committee and Board of Trustees.
He also served on the Board of Trustees of the Mountain Foundation
Fellowship and the William Townsend Porter Foundation and was a
long-standing chairman of the Scholarship Committee of the Society of
General Physiologists. His wide-ranging research through five decades led
to many publications in international scientific journals.
After leaving
the MBL as a year round investigator, Dr. Kaminer took a position as a
lecturer in the Department of Anatomy at Harvard Medical School and in 1970
was appointed chairman of the Physiology Department at Boston University
School of Medicine. He was committed to building and maintaining a strong
teaching and research faculty and had a very special dedication towards the
education and development of his students. His teaching skills were widely
recognized by his many students over the years and he was the recipient of
teaching awards from the university. His research at BU focused on the
calcium regulatory mechanism in striated and smooth muscle. He served as
chairman for thirty years until his retirement in 2000, returning to Woods
Hole year round.
In addition to
his wife Freda, he leaves a son, Brian Kaminer of Woods Hole and a daughter,
Lauren Kaminer of Falmouth. The family has established a MBL scholarship
in Dr. Kaminer's name.
The family
will be holding a remembrance service on Tuesday, August 3 at 2 pm in the
Meigs room at the MBL's Swope Center.
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