FROM UCLA Press Release, June 28, 2006
Obituary: UCLA Neuroendocrinologist
Charles Sawyer’s Research Laid Groundwork for the Pill, Treatment of
Infertility
Charles H. “Tom” Sawyer, Ph.D., a distinguished emeritus
professor of neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, died on June 20 at the
age of 91.
Sawyer was an influential
pioneer in the field of neuroendocrinology --
the study of the relationship
between the
nervous system and the
endocrine system. His
research was among the first to pinpoint how the brain controls the
secretion of
hormones from the pituitary gland
and link it to reproductive function. His findings laid the groundwork
for the development of the birth-control pill and the treatment of
infertility.
One of the original five members of the UCLA Brain
Research Institute, he created the institute’s Laboratory of
Neuroendocrinology, which remains at the forefront of research and
training new experts in the field.
“Tom was a giant in the field of neuroendocrinology,”
said Arthur Arnold, Ph.D., UCLA chair of physiological sciences and
director of the UCLA Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology. “His research
demonstrated how the brain controls the reproductive endocrine organs
and is influenced by them in turn. He was part of a small and elite
international group of scientists who established the brain-gonad
connection, for which he was elected to the National Academy of
Sciences. He made UCLA an international center in neuroendocrine
training and research.”
Sawyer was a founding faculty member of the anatomy
department at the UCLA School of Medicine, where he delivered the first
lecture to its first class. He taught gross anatomy to UCLA medical
students for nearly 60 years.
Sawyer
was equally admired by his colleagues in the field. Fellow
endocrinologist Dr. Andrew V. Schally, the 1977 Nobel
Laureate in Medicine, signed his textbook with the inscription, “With
deep admiration and friendship to Tom Sawyer, the No. 1 pioneer in
neuroendocrinology and the man who started the avalanche of progress on
the hypothalamus.”
Schally shared the Nobel Prize with Dr. Roger Guillemin,
who recently wrote, “Charles H. Sawyer was one of the very early major
contributors to the field of endocrinology through his fundamental
studies of the functions of the ovary and the brain mechanisms now known
to be their ultimate regulators. He always asked the right question or
provided a clue to the right answer. In a historical review I wrote in
1977 following the Nobel lecture, I gave much credit to Dr. Sawyer for
his early insights and contributions. His many students and early
collaborators are now some of the leaders of the expanding field of
neuroendocrinology.”
In the mid-1960s, Sawyer received a Ford Foundation
training grant that funded postdoctoral training in the
neuroendocrinology of reproduction. This enabled him to train young
UCLA scientists in the field that he helped to create and to expand the
reach of neuroendocrine research – and its implications for reproductive
medicine -- across the world.
Due in part to his extensive collaborative work, Sawyer
was a prolific scientist. During his 63-year research career, he
published 336 papers in distinguished medical journals.
“Tom was
an outstanding neurobiologist who played a major role in the development
of neuroendocrinology at UCLA and worldwide,” said Roger Gorski, Ph.D.,
a former colleague of Sawyer’s and a UCLA distinguished professor
emeritus of neurobiology. “His efforts led to the creation of the UCLA
Brain Research Institute’s Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, which
continues to train new scholars and lead collaborative research on the
complex interactions between hormones, genes and neurons.”
Sawyer was born in 1915 in Ludlow, Vt. He received an
A.B. degree from Middlebury College (1937), and was a Dutton traveling
fellow at Cambridge University from 1937-1938. He received his doctoral
degree with distinction in zoology from Yale University in 1941 – the
same year he married fellow Middlebury biologist Ruth Schaeffer of
Waterbury, Conn.
After two years as an anatomy instructor at Stanford
University (1941-1943), Sawyer joined the anatomy department at Duke
University (1943-1951), where he was promoted to professor.
In 1951, Sawyer was invited to join the anatomy
department at the newly created UCLA School of Medicine. He served as
department chairman from 1955-1963 and again in 1968. He was a charter
member of the UCLA Deans Council in 1973.
Sawyer served the Public Health Service as a member of
its fellowship review board in pharmacology and endocrinology and as a
member of the neurology study section A from 1963-1967. He was chairman
of the anatomy panel of the National Board of Medical Examiners in 1964,
on the council of the Endocrine Society from 1968-1970, and a member of
the board of directors of the Society for the Study of Reproduction from
1969-1971. He was a council member of the International Society of
Neuroendocrinology and a 50-year member of the American Physiological
Society.
Sawyer received the prestigious Koch Award of the
Endocrine Society in 1973, presented the first Geoffrey Harris Memorial
Lecture in 1974, won the UCLA Brain Research Institute Award in 1966,
earned the UCLA Certificate of Teaching Excellence Award in 1976, and
won the Hartman Award of the Society for the Study of Reproduction in
1978.
He was elected to the prestigious National Academy of
Science in the Physiology and Pharmacology section in 1980. Sawyer
received the Award of Extraordinary Merit from the UCLA Medical Alumni
Association in 1990.
In addition to Ruth, his wife of 64 years, Sawyer is survived by his
daughter, Joan Sawyer Steffan, Ph.D., whose father’s career inspired her
to become a UCI assistant professor researching neurodegenerative
diseases; son-in-law Dr. William Steffan, a family physician; and
grandsons Joseph and Thomas Steffan.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be
sent to The Charles H. Sawyer Fund at the UCLA Department of
Neurobiology, Box 951763, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1763.
-UCLA-
