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Senior Physiologists' News |
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Letter to Julio Cruz Jim Heath writes: “Thank you for your letter. I moved to Texas when I retired from the University of Illinois. My wife, who is an entomologist, and I have collaborated for a number of years on the physiology and ecology of cicadas. We found a house with a garage that was constructed twice as deep as usual and had casement windows across the back and all services. We converted half of the space into a 17x22 foot laboratory. We have enough equipment to do both field and modest laboratory study. We have worked extensively on relating temperature regulation and energetics to the habitat of species from the Southwest US, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. “In the field we try to identify the host plant of each species, since most have narrow food preferences. We also try to determine life history characteristics like longevity of the adult phase and total lifetime, song structure, mating behavior etc. We have begun studies of soil characteristics of the native habitat, since the early instars live on roots deep in the soil. We are publishing regularly. Because housing and working with insects does not come under restrictive rules, we can do this at home. “In addition, I am trying to complete the writing of a number of studies dealing with mammalian temperature regulation. I continue to edit the Journal of Thermal Biology with Kenneth Bowler of Durham. “I have served on the local Friends of the Library. I teach safe boating classes, and have served on the Citizens Advisory Committee for Lake Buchanan to the Lower Colorado River Authority. I have been president of the Highland Lakes Wildflower and Birding Society and directed the Audubon Bird count for Burnet County for two years. With a friend, I have performed in a jazz duo with my guitar and his flute, a good combination for Brazilian bossa nova and samba. “Both my wife and I are active in Heritage societies related to genealogy. She is a past Regent of the local DAR chapter and I am presently State President of the Sons of the American Revolution. I have given lectures around the state on the status of Science or Medicine at the time of the American Revolution and on the Science of Ben Franklin. “We just celebrated 50 years of marriage with 180 close friends and relatives. We were married quite young and managed to raise three children while pursuing our science. We both hold PhDs, although many thought we would never finish college. “We live on Lake Buchanan, a 30x5 mile reservoir; we get too little time for sailing.” Letters to Edgar Folk Hal Levey writes: “Please excuse the long delay in responding to the APS recognition of my 80th birthday. I seem to recall that on that day, August 14 (that I share with VJ Day), I was on a remote beach in Minorca, along with assorted naked Europeans, eating sea urchins just plucked from the rocks along the shore. That evening, I dined on the local specialty, roast kid—repressing my sympathy for the cute little creature that might have been gamboling gaily in a field of wild flowers a few days earlier. I also spent some time in Barcelona, where I sampled absinthe for the first time in the London Bar just off the Rambla; and tasted the most expensive smoked ham in Spain, called Jabugo, at about $100 per pound. For some reason, recollections of my years teaching endocrinology to medical students never entered my mind. “Advice to young physiologists? Stay focused, publish, get grants, travel to international meetings, and try to locate my secret beach in the Mediterranean.” Francis M. Knapp writes: “In 1952, following my return from Korea where I had been an aide-de-camp to a two-star general commanding an infantry division, I applied for admission and was accepted at the University of Southern California for graduate work in the Department of Physiology in the medical school. I was a bit older than my classmates because I had also commanded a heavy weapons company in an infantry battalion in WWII, and yet to complete two undergraduate years between wars. “I was very fortunate to be invited to work in the laboratory of Chester Hyman, who was investigating microcirculation in various systems which included the brain. At that time, regional bloodflow in the brain was not well-defined. [I virtually memorized Car Schmidt’s monograph on ‘The Cerebral Circulation in Health and Disease,’ plus papers he and Seymour Kety were producing.] Being in Chester’s laboratory introduced me to many who visited, such as Ben Zweifach, Eugene Renkin, Ralph Sonnenschein and others who were leaders in Physiology, who enhanced my development. “My postdoctoral study was at Karolinka Institutet in Borje Uvnas’s Department of Pharmacology in Stockholm. What a magnificent man he was. [He was a member of the Nobel Prize selection committee, and arranged my attending dinner for the prize winners.] It was in his facility that I met one of Physiology’s current super stars—Olga Hudlicka. Our primary projects were separate, but we were asked to work together on verification of the brain location of the sympathetic vasodilator center. “Upon returning to the United States, I spent five years with Harold and Williamina Himwich in Illinois. The Thudicum Laboratory, of which Harold was the director, was a diversified group of researchers and projects related to the brain. My group, among a number of other things, was approaching the implanting of an electromagnetic flow meter on the Circle of Willis to determine blood flow under varying conditions. Working with us, hydrology engineers at the University of Illinois had developed a model of the Circle of Willis. With flow meters and computers we gathered data that simulated what might occur in a living situation. “Then came the university years—of grant proposals; teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels; directing graduate student research; chairing the Health Professions committee and sending student evaluations to medical, dental, etc., schools; dozens of meetings on various matters; president of the Faculty Senate; Department Chair; Dean at a major University; trips to scientific meetings; member of community groups; boards of major and minor significance. I had become an administrator with arthritic hands that resulted in leaving the laboratory except in an advisory capacity. “I retired 12 years ago during which span my knowledge of physiology has been slipping away, in large part because of the micro-direction in which it has moved. I was trained as a generalist with emphasis on cardiovascular and neural physiology, but remained very conscious of the research being done in the other bodily systems. The interrelationships are essential. A living organism doesn’t function as a collection of separate entities. “I occasionally attend the weekly lectures in Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego, and for several years in a drug testing program in the Department of Rheumatology at the medical school. I am also a member of the Plan Committee in the Clairemont district of San Diego, and also the Redevelopment Committee for a large segment of the city. “I thank you for suggesting me to write as I being to approach another year in the 80s. I’m not one of the ‘whiz kids’ of the American Physiological Society, but I am a proud physiologist. I hope that I’ve left a few things of value along the way.” |
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