Senior Physiologists' News
Mortimer Civan writes: “Thank you very much for your kind note on the occasion of a milestone birthday.
“In response to your query, I remain very much engaged in scientific inquiry and continue to participate in teaching medical and graduate students. I remain awed by the beauty and intricate complexity of physiology and at the increasingly powerful tools becoming available to address these complexities, both as an intellectual challenge and an opportunity to better and to prolong human life. In my own laboratory, what we shall be doing in the coming year is different from what we did last year. Each year brings new challenges and opportunities. I remain rejuvenated by my students and fellows, and by the lively, collegial and imaginative members of my Department.
“I am reminded of the first lecture I attended as an incoming student at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The Nobel Laureate Albert Szent-Gyorgyi confessed that he had not gone into science to gain information. For that purpose, a far more efficient approach would have been to have immersed himself in a library. He had entered science because it was good fun! I find that the fun remains, and happily, NIH has just concluded that the output from my laboratory justifies continued support of my scientific enthusiasms.”
Letters to G. Edgar Folk
Hugh Huxley writes: “Many thanks for your very kind birthday card. I am still finding interesting things to do and think about in the lab (unpaid), and am in pretty good health and enjoying life. Lots of meetings (six so far!) this year. Celebrating 50 years of sliding filaweats.”
Homayoun Kazemi writes: “Thank you for your recent letter and inquiry about what I am up to at the moment. I have enjoyed my life in academic medicine through the years, and after some 31 years, as head of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Unit at MGR, I stepped down from that post when I reached the age of 65 some five years ago. Following that, I spent a year on sabbatical in the Department of Phys-iology at University of California, San Diego working with Frank Powell on neurotransmitters and respiratory control, which has been a major interest of mine through most of my professional life. Since returning to Boston, I have continued with some clinical activities and teaching. The latter has included Harvard medical students and residents as well as post-graduate fellows in pulmonary medicine. I have continued my interest in respiratory control and organized the Oxford Conference on Respiratory Control and Modeling in Falmouth, MA in 2000. It was a wonderful gathering, and it allowed us to get together with Colleagues from all around the globe.
“The part of my activities that I have enjoyed the most through the years is to apply physiological principles to management of patients with various respiratory and cardiovascular problems. I have always felt that a good understanding of systems physiology is essential in providing scientific basis for medical care. This has stood me in good stead through the years. Now, in this new age of cellular and molecular biology and genetics, I think the message that we need to pass on the next generation of scientists is that physiological principles are applicable in this new world, and without it, we will not get very far. I am happy to say that many of my colleagues who are more interested in cellular and molecular biology are now coming to us to apply their findings and use physiology in management of disease. Indeed, it has been a wonderful life. I have enjoyed what I have done, and hope to continue doing some of the same for some time to come.”
Jean Himms-Hagen writes: “Thank you for the birthday greetings in December 2003. Your letter took me by surprise, even although I have been reading “Senior Physiologists’ News” for years. I apologize for the delay in replying, a consequence of two relatively disastrous years, summarized below, from which I am now thankfully more or less recovered.
“Unknown to me or to anyone else, I was slowly developing normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) as a consequence of an acoustic neuroma. The neuroma was diagnosed in 2001 and treated in 2002 with fractionated stereotactic radiation. The NPH, however, persisted and the problem it produced with walking eventually led me to fall and shatter my elbow. It took five weeks in hospital for a team of specialists and students to work out why I fell, to understand why I was so sick when I had only broken my elbow, and to plan and execute the surgical treatment (implantation of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt). After I was allowed home, Paul and I decided that we could no longer continue to look after our large house, so we moved to an apartment in a nearby retirement residence, where we now live independently, but have the availability of help if needed. The move, which required condensing 48 years of possessions into two rooms, consumed most of my energy for several months. More recently, at the request of the University, I also condensed the office, which I had inhabited for 20 years, into a single small desk, a change that also required much energy.
“Fortunately, my recovery from a state that in some respects mimicked Alzheimer’s and that had left me unable to walk has been quite spectacular. Mental and physical activity have now largely returned to normal and I have resumed reading of the literature and writing of reviews. My latest invited review on thermogenesis and obesity has just been published and reprint requests are already coming in. The necessity in December 2003 for repeat surgery to remove the pins and wires from my elbow entailed no more than a brief interruption in my work. I feel extremely fortunate that the investigative curiosity and skill of the MDs and students at our teaching hospital were able to retrieve me from a state that was directing me towards a long-term care home. This was an added bonus to the enjoyment I experienced from 40 years of teaching metabolism to medical students (even although my case did not test their knowledge of metabolism). I also feel very fortunate that as Professor Emeritus I continue to have free access to the vastness of the scientific literature from my home computer via the University library. I have already started on another review, spending the early morning hours, as always, immersed in science and thoroughly enjoying myself. I very much miss the former frequent personal contacts with colleagues at meetings, but hope to get back to them eventually.
“Paul and I used to travel quite a lot, both to scientific meetings all over the world and driving to visit one of our daughters, in Boston 20 years ago, now near Philadelphia where she lives with our son-in-law and two grandchildren, eight and 10 years old. The grandchildren continue to be source of great enjoyment and visit us here at least twice a year. However, we do miss being able to drive to their house to help take care of them once in a while. Happily, our other daughter lives here in Ottawa and visits us frequently.
“You ask for ‘words of wisdom’ to pass on to others. The only ones I can offer stem from my wonderment that I could actually be paid for over 50 years to do what I really enjoy and very much want to do, namely, scientific research and teaching. My early elementary and high school education during the war years in Oxford had not led me to expect such. I grew up believing that work was necessary to earn the money needed to do other things one enjoyed. In my case, such an expectation turned out to be wrong. Subsequent experience has taught me that work can do both at the same time. I have never thought of my job as ‘work.’ My advice therefore is: find out what you really enjoy, then seek a position that employs you to do it.
“It was a pleasure to hear from someone I have known for so many years.”
Letter to Alan Hofmann
David Megirian writes: “My kind thanks for your letter of 24th April 2004. Your letter has been dangling over my workspace. It has reminded me that I shall begin the eighth decade of life near the end of the year.
“Yes, I'm still an active researcher. My current focus has turned to the use of gene-targeted mice in an effort to understand the role of tolerance to narcotic analgesics and the serendipitous findings that have emerged from this focus. The challenge to understand the place of molecular biology for one who has been a system's physiologist for many years is awesome. I have had to give up being a ‘teacher’ to become a ‘student.’ The learning curve is modest though enormously satisfying.
“Under the tutelage first of Harold C. Hodge at the Univ. of Rochester, NY he often reminded me and the other students within his compass: ‘Remember that research is good, clean fun!’ Hence, where ever and whenever I embark on a new research project I am ever mindful of Harold’s words. I would say the same to all, not just tyros contemplating a career in research.
“I have a long-standing link with Beverly Bishop in Buffalo, another octogenarian. Both of us have spent many years studying neural control mechanisms of breathing, she chiefly on abdominal wall muscles while we in Hobart focused on the role of upper airway muscles. Then we shifted interest to circadian thermal and activity rhythms while I made a three-year stopover in Buffalo. We now often have telephone chats over 14 to 16 time zones several times a month.
“After many gypsy years of teaching and research I am anchored in Canberra, Australia. I have a small house with a delightfully small and walled garden. My great love, at the end of day in the lab, is to read fiction, biography, history and politics, especially the writings of Australian authors. My current one is Bryce Courtenay whom I must read with a Macquarie Dictionary to hand. My next door neighbor is a native French speaker; I have chances to have a natter with her, a language I adore.”