My Career in Science - Dr. G. Edgar Folk -- TOC
Living History Project G. Edgar Folk Jr.
00:01:06 I
understand that from a very early age you influenced toward physiology. Can you
tell us who were some of the first persons to exert such an influence?
00:04:00 I
think there are some people who influenced you before you entered college. Can
you tell us about some of these people who influenced you toward the Life
Sciences?
00:06:49 You
attended Harvard University from 1933-1947 you received your AB there in 1937
then your received your PhD also from Harvard in 1947. Let�s focus on your
undergraduate years. You already mentioned that Donald Griffin continued to
exert some influence on you when you were an undergraduate student. Who are some
of the people that had quite an influenced in directing you in Physiology when
you were an undergraduate student?
00:12:58
Let�s move on to your graduate career. Tell us something about the role that
your graduate advisor played in stimulating you toward Physiology.
00:14:47
With respect again to your graduate career, where there any interruptions in
your graduate career?
00:20:46
Your going to the laboratory [Harvard Fatigue Laboratory] was that a further
interruption of your graduate studies or did it somehow help you conclude your
studies.
00:21:34
Harvard Fatigue Laboratory was a very prestigious laboratory that closed in
1947. For those of us who might not have heard about it or don�t know too much
about it can you tell us a little about what we should know about that
laboratory?
00:26:13
Lets conclude our discussion of the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory with you telling
us about the person or people who had the most influence upon you in developing
yourself as an environmental physiologist.
00:32:58
After you left Harvard and it�s Fatigue Laboratory you accepted a position in
the biology department of Bowden College in Maine I think you remained there
about six years and I assumed your primary job was teaching but I think you
managed to some serious research at the time. Could you tell us about that
research?
0035:47 We
come now to the University of Iowa and in 1953 you accepted a teaching position
in the Physiology department here with in the medical school at what was then
called the State University of Iowa. Why did you leave Bowden?
00:36:57
Could you tell us a little bit about your teaching responsibilities when you
first came here, particularly with respect to the medical students?
00:43:14
Would you discuss Circadian Rhythm-Biological Clock, this topic in hibernating
animals?
00:51:37 You
talked about your biological rhythm studies with whole animals. Did you do any
work with isolated issue?
00:56:27
From the perspective of an individual who�s achieved eminence as a environmental
physiologist there�s a certain advice we�d like to receive from you and one is
what kind of advice would you give to a beginning physiologist?
00:57:28 As
the American Physiological Society is entering/ or has entered the 21st
century what kind of advice would you give to the Society�s Council and its Long
Rang Planning Committee?
00:59:30 As
for Physiology itself, what do you see in its future?