Biographical Memoirs Volume 50 (1979) / Chapter Skim
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Detlev Wulf Bronk
Detlev Wulf Bronk
Pages 2-87
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From page 3... ...
Detlev Bronk is a direct descendant of Mattheus Brunck, a "smith" from the Rhenish Palatinate, who came to West Camp, on the Hudson River, in 1710. A grandson of Mattheus, Abraham, settled about 1797 on a farm near Duanesburg, Schenectady county, which became known as "the Bronk Place." Det's grandfather, Abram Bronk, grew up in Florida, New York.
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Their brother, John, became a lawyer. Aunt Belle taught French Language and Literature as a member of the faculty of Swarthmore College from 1901 to 1927; she had a very definite influence upon Det's development and general education during his college years there.
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It seems a shame sometimes that I cannot decide what to do and then go ahead and fit myself for that work." Perhaps this urtcertainty derived from Det's urge to participate in the war effort. Soon after, he proposed in another letter to his father that he leave college and work with the Food Administration Office in Philadelphia.
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He and Helen graduated from Swarthmore College in June 1920.
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Subsequent events and letters suggest that during this period he decided that advanced study and research in physics were essential for his future plans. That summer he studied at Harvard, choosing acoustics and advanced calculus in preparation for continuing his graduate studies in physics at the University of Michigan in the fall.
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From page 8... ...
The Sunday night dinners at Hill House in Sycamore Mills were notable for good food, friendship, and interesting discussions. Scientists in the Johnson Foundation and graduate students were privileged to join the Bronk family and to meet visiting scientists.
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From page 9... ...
At this critical juncture in his professional development Bronk dropped the idea of finishing his degree in physics. He described this sequence of changes in a letter to Bazzoni: "The object of my going into the department of physiology for this year was to get a good grounding in biological and medical sciences which would enable me to effectively carry on research in big-physics.
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From page 10... ...
This contact eventually led to correspondence and a meeting between Bronk and Bazett. In February 1925 Bazett asked Bronk to consider coming to his department to oversee work of a graduate student who wanted to do research in x-ray analysis of the structure of fibrin and muscle.
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From page 11... ...
His letters to Professor Bazett at Penn and to President Frank Aydelotte at Swarthmore seeking an appointment earnestly proclaim that biophysics can be developed into a powerful intellectual discipline for understanding "the living state of matter." His research reports for the years 1923 to 1928 marked the transition of a physicist into a biophysicist concerned with the physical analysis of physiological processes in animals. The scientific roots of Det Bronk in engineering and physics are evident throughout his published research.
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From page 12... ...
I do not desire purely technical nor research work; the University has assured me an attractive future should I care to continue in that work. Nor do I wish to go into banking or bond sales.
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I would like to try the job with a more intellectual group than a class of medical students; they are too professional in their interest. To have research work in such a thrilling field going on should help to stimulate real scientific interest among the students and bring credit to Swarthmore for lending support to a new thing which is on the verge of growing rapidly.
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From page 14... ...
Professor Bazett of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School offered him an appointment as Instructor in physiology at Penn or space in his laboratory for research if he joined the Swarthmore faculty. The research opportunities at Penn pleased Bronk as did the academic position at Swarthmore in a post especially designed for him.
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From page 15... ...
Bronk thought that an official, though nominal, connection with the University of Pennsylvania Medical School was of value in relation to his research work in physiology. From July 1926 through January 1928 Det was busy teaching at Swarthmore, developing an Honors program for premedical students there, and continuing his research in Bazett's laboratory at Penn and in the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL)
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Eugene Opie, then on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. Bronk was granted the fellowship for one year.
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My observation of workers who reverse their emphasis has convinced me of the soundness of your view." However, he had heard rumors of an institute for medical physics at Penn. In a letter to Bazett, March 1928, he specifically asked for "any news regarding the medical physics situation." In November 1928 he wrote Bazett that he had refused the post at Rochester because the proposed medical physics undertaking at Penn would be less restrictive in the range of biophysical research.
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From page 18... ...
During the time when this scientific research was in progress these two men developed a mutual respect for each other's personal qualities that continued in a life-long friendship. Their studies of motor nerve activity helped Adrian establish the generalization that intensity of nervous action on other cells, including other neurons, is measured by the frequency of the nerve impulses in each neuron and the number of active neurons.
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From page 19... ...
The conversations initiated by this letter lecl directly to an acceptance by Bronk, in April 1929, of an appointment as Johnson Professor of Biophysics and Director of the Eldridge Reeves Johnson Foundation for Medical Physics. In October, a letter to Stengel indicates that a staff hac3 been appointed, that the laboratories were available, and that several investigators, including Ragnar Granit from Stockholm and W
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From page 20... ...
Clearly, association in research for nine months had made these two men confiding friends a relation that continued until Det's cleath. Bronk regarded the Johnson Foundation as an exceptional opportunity for devoting all of his time to research and the teaching of graduate students.
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With this knowledge of the neural code and the new techniques for recording from single fibers, he and his collaborators provided, over ten years, essential experimental evidence for our present understanding of the neural regulation of blood pressure. In physiological systems the neural regulation requires receptors for detecting and measuring the output of the effecters, as any good engineer would know.
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From page 22... ...
The implications for medical science and for applied physiology were clear to him, forming later a strong intellectual basis for his practical efforts in aviation medicine during World War II. In 1946, he summarized his views on "The Physical Structure and Biological Action of Nerve Cells, with Some References to the Problems of Human Flight." ~ A central problem in understanding the action of any system of nerve cells is the description of the processes mediating the excitation of one nerve cell by another.
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From page 23... ...
The studies of chemical excitation of nerve cells and axons (1937-1946) were relevant to the finer biophysical analysis of this physiologically important phenomenon.
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Hill. From this experience he published, in 1931, a paper on "The Initial and Recovery Heat Production of Vertebrate Nerve." Ten years later he and his collaborators reinstituted investigations of these same energy transactions in terms of the oxygen uptake associated with nervous action, in trans-synaptic excitation and in axonal conduction.
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From page 25... ...
He emphasized the need for advanced study of physics and biology because "there is a large body of facts and theories concerning living organisms which is unknown to the physicist."~ Obviously, this opinion was derived from his own pioneering efforts twelve years earlier when he decided to take his advanced degree in physics and physiology. This summarizing paper, "The Relation of Physics to the Biological Sciences," closes with an expression of one of his life-long motivations, "the satisfaction which comes to workers in this field, for we have a rare opportunity to glimpse the essential unity of science.
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From page 26... ...
He often visualized the ideal laboratory as a large room with several groups of investigators conducting diverse experiments all related to a basic biological problem. Later, when his administrative duties dominated his attention, he seemed content to be in or near a laboratory and to inquire how the last experiment had worked out.
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From page 27... ...
He favored Cornell in part because he hoped to utilize the talent at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in the education of his graduate students. It was during the spring of 1940 that Det began having doubts about leaving the University of Pennsylvania.
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It is interesting to note that Richards and Bazett now agreed to let Bronk and the research staff of the Johnson Foundation participate in teaching physiology to medical students as they had done at Cornell.
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From page 29... ...
This Neurological Institute, with original purposes intact, continues today evidence of one more of Bronk's ideas that resulted in a viable organization for the advancement of research on the nervous system and promotion of procedures to make fundamental knowledge available for use in solving clinical problems. The correspondence between Bronk and the Comptroller at Penn from 1939 to 1940 suggests that funding of research and salaries for all the members of the Johnson Foundation was becoming very uncertain at the time.
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From page 30... ...
directing this national effort within the OSRD created by Vannevar Bush. Perhaps this was a major reason why he urged Bronk to return to the Johnson Foundation.
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The war focused the attention of scientists upon practical problems defined by the military requirements. Primary concern with advanced study and basic research had to be put aside in favor of investigations and effective use of available knowledge for quick solutions adequate for military purposes.
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From page 32... ...
His letter to Det comments upon Det's effective, simultaneous leadership in the Johnson Foundation and in the CAM and as Coordinator of Research in the Air Surgeon's Office. (Note again Det's unusual flare for focusing his efforts on a common problem through several channels of management.)
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From page 33... ...
Through his extraordinary administrative initiative and skill, he achieved the successful establishment and fulfillment of the AAF altitude and training program, conceived and established the AAF night vision training program, and contributed outstandingly to the national welfare through the advancement and application of the knowledge of aviation medicine. During the war, Bronk was heavily involved with work in national organizations, starting with the NRC and culminating in his appointment as Coordinator of Research, Office of the Air Surgeon, Headquarters Army Air Forces.
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From page 34... ...
Newton Richards, as Vice-Presiderlt for Medical Affairs, enabled Det to make the necessary arrangements with Penn so that he could become chairman and also continue as Director of the Johnson Research Foundation. Of great inter
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From page 35... ...
Det took the chairmanship of the NRC in the belief that he could have great influence on the course of the imminent changes in national policy for science and its role in society. He declined a full-time appointment because biophysical research and the development of the Johnson Foundation continued to be a major interest.
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From page 36... ...
The transition was not abrupt and not without difficult decisions. In accepting appointment as Chairman of the NRC, Bronk wrote to .Jewett, "I am so grateful for your sympathetic understanding of the reasons why I felt unable to accept the post on a full-time basis, due to my loyalties and obligations to the University of Pennsylvania and my strong desire to continue research." The personal circumstances for his insistence on continuing at the Johnson Foundation while Chairman of the NRC are enhanced by a letter from his wife, Helen, reminding him that, "direct contact with important research is your first and most important interest." After six other relevant points she concluded: "a quotation keeps going through my head 'What shall it profit a man if he gain
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From page 37... ...
appeared in 1957, about thirty-four years after his first. The title of the first paper was "The Structure of the Absorption Bands of Certain Organic Gases and Vapors in the Near Infra-Red," published in the Physical Review, and the last one was, "The Oxygen Uptake of the Peripheral Nerve of the Rat," published in the Journal of Neurochemistry.
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From page 38... ...
discussing "Synaptic Mechanisms in Sympathetic Ganglia," and a paper in a symposium on Chemistry and Medicine (1940) entitled "The Nervous Regulation of Visceral Processes." The final talk of this kind was his Croonian Lecture delivered in 1949 on "The Rhythmic Action and Respiration of Nerve Cells." (This paper, never prepared in final form for publication, exists as a series of notes and references to specific slides.)
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From page 39... ...
As an inspired leader in advanced study and research he had a deep concern for all creative people. He admired and wanted to understand creative scholars generally.
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the nature of the scientific enterprise, (3) the role of science in society and national affairs, and (4)
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From page 41... ...
Largely on Compton's say-so the University scarcely considered its one-hundred-odd other candidates." When Det was offered the Presidency of The Johns Hopkins University his role as an educator and a scholar received appropriate recognition. He saw an opportunity to make explicit some of his ideas about an ideal graduate school.
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From page 42... ...
He believed that students should be given the opportunity to advance in their scholarly activities in accordance with their individual capabilities. He created the "Hopkins plan" which permitted undergraduates to engage in advanced study without regard to their academic classification as undergraduates.
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From page 43... ...
He proposed advancement based on learning and judged by high standards of accomplishment in advanced study and creative enterprises leading to the doctorate in six years. At Hopkins Det worked closely with the faculty committee to develop his plan for advancing students in accordance with their scholarly accomplishments rather than their exam grades and course credits.
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From page 44... ...
: "Are you still so adamant about keeping your hand in on actual research work in the laboratory that you wouldn't consider a really top line administrative position connected with research if it wandered your way? " Thus, like other scientists and educators directly involved in the rapidly expanding national scientific enterprises, Bronk continued his academic career pari passe.
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From page 45... ...
He had also become a member of the Board of Scientific Directors of The Rockefeller Institute in 1946 and, in 1951, was chairman of its committee to prescribe a future policy and recommend a new director for the Institute. IN SERVICE TO SCIENCE AND THE NATION The general approval of Bronk's service in the NRC was expressed by his election as President of the NAS at the annual meeting of the Academy in 1950.
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From page 46... ...
He refused to serve because he had personally urged Conant to accept the nomination. Conant was not present but graciously requested, when Vannevar Bush informed him by phone, that the election of Bronk be made unanimous.
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From page 47... ...
Furthermore, he had been Foreign Secretary of the Academy since 1945 and therefore experienced in promoting ofl5cial participation of our national scientific societies in international scientific affairs. The range of his services and initiatives as President of the NAS are too exten· · .
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Coleman (now Executive Officer, NAS) recall Det's creative efforts to enhance the role of the Academy in the development and utilization of scientific knowledge for the welfare of our nation: Det saw the NAS/NRC also as a place where the health of basic science must be faithfully tended, and its role as the foundation of the whole technological enterprise must be emphasized.
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Congress and the Administration tended to regard the scientific enterprise as a national resource that should be directed and controlled by legal procedures. The scientists and educators, so unified during the war effort, now revealed in legislative hearings extensive differences of opinion.
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From page 50... ...
His testimony in 1945 on Bill S-1297 reiterated two principles that he believed essential for the long-range development of science as a national asset. He spoke in favor of "A Division of Basic or Natural Science for encouragement of research of a purely exploratory nature; uninhibited by the necessity of solving useful problems." Later he said, "I urge that means be found for giving many scientists of proven or potential competence the freedom to direct the course of their own investigations." During this period Det continuously exchanged letters with many other scientists involved directly with this portentous change ir1 the relation of the Federal Government to the scientific enterprise They were very conscious that the form of the legislation would influence the direction of scientific development ire the country for the foreseeable future.
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I have never witnessed Det Bronk in action at a substantive meeting of the National Science Board, the Council of the Academy, or the Board of Trustees of any of the universities that he served. The following remarks by W
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The period through the 1960's saw the greatest growth of the National Science Foundation and its profound influence in the national community of research and education. The many weekend meetings, orchestrated by Det Bronk, in which the Centers of Excellence programs, new curricular supports, national research institutions from the Antarctic to the Rockies, and many other activities were conceived and pursued, represent an historic phase of Federal science and education.
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From page 53... ...
The NAS iS responsible for implementing the participation of our national scientific societies in international scientific affairs. It administers our national cooperation with the International Council of Scientific Unions in a wide range of disciplines.
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From page 54... ...
As the role of science in national policy increased, the requests by the Federal Administration for advice from NAS changed. In January 1958, Secretary of Commerce, Sinclair Weeks, asked Bronk to form a committee of the NAS to evaluate all scientific programs within the Department of Commerce.
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From page 55... ...
He foresaw that restraints on freedom of inquiry would surely arise as the scientific enterprise became increasingly recognized as a national resource for solving social problems related to defense, health, food, and technology. He knew that freedom of inquiry and dissent were essential in the search for new knowledge and he understood clearly that science must be free of politics and of nationalism.
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From page 56... ...
The furtherance of science requires courage to withstand the pressure of reactionary forces.. To an impressive degree Det Bronk practiced what he preached ~ "The Role of Scientists in the Furtherance of Science," Science, 119~19~4)
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From page 57... ...
The issue was the specter of political intervention into higher education through centralized control of research and advanced study. One proposed compromise was a special loyalty oath, but this was objectionable to many scholars.
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From page 58... ...
He said the NRC position was weakened because individual scientists and scientific societies did not take a firm public position on the matter. Later, in 1952, he was again involved in problems arising from NSF grants to "communistic" scientists, at a time when he was on the Board.
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From page 59... ...
The strong interest of Eisenhower in promoting science to achieve national goals provided the right circumstances for a rational solution to the problem. However, the Congressional Committees continued their watchdog responsibilities and incorporated in relevant laws the specific requirement that Communists were not to receive federal money for research or for advanced study.
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From page 60... ...
The loyalty problem for graduate students continued at least ten years after the AEC episode. In more general terms the problems were related to procedures for insuring the freedom of universities from political influence while maintaining federal support of advanced study and basic research.
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From page 61... ...
His action was supported by the Board and the Academic Council of The Johns Hopkins University. In 1953, the Walter Hines Page School of International Studies was discontinued and Lattimore assumed the title of Lecturer which he held until 1962.
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He was guided in his actions by personal principles but learned the political realities that derived directly from federal support of advanced study and research. This experience led him and others to emphasize the importance of retaining as much private support of universities as possible to insure that freedom of thought and inquiry would be encouraged and defended against centralized political control.
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From page 63... ...
Indeed, immediately after this event he became a member of the Board of Trustees at Hopkins in order to continue as adviser to that institution. The procedure and purposes of this arrangement are reminiscent of his continued role at Swarthmore College after he became Director of the Johnson Foundation and Professor of Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1929.
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From page 64... ...
For many disciplines a high degree of specialization is necessary and must be provided in training undergraduates. These considerations preclude establishing most universities as "communities of scholars devoted exclusively to wide-ranging advanced study and research." As Det continued his discussions of advanced education with the faculty at Hopkins and, simultaneously, his efforts on the committee considering the future development of The Rockefeller Institute, the idea of a graduate university of science emerged.
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From page 65... ...
In September 1955, ten graduate fellows began their studies as candidates for the Ph.D. The Rockefeller Institute had become a graduate university in fact, though not in name.
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From page 66... ...
Thus, the faculty in biology was expanded and a faculty in mathematics and physics created. Det wisely focused his attention on individual scientists and carefully avoided constructing any group that might function as a conventional academic department.
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From page 67... ...
They must be exceptionally intelligent, he liked to say, but in addition they need self-assurance, self-discipline, and a great urge to learn through advarlced study and research. # A more detailed reviewer of these events is in my essay, "Detlev Bronk and the Development of the Graduate Education Program." In: Institute to University, a Seventy-f fth Anniversary Colloquium, June 8, 1976 (N.Y.: The Rockefeller University Press>.
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From page 68... ...
Perhaps, most of all, he would want to reaffirm his belief that, in this or any other endeavor, human relations and human dignity must be paramount. M ONUMENTS A plaque in front of the Detlev Wulf Bronk Laboratory on the campus of The Rockefeller University describes him as Scientist, Educator, Humanist.
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From page 69... ...
This memoir is written with the latter idea in mind and with an effort to exhibit that, for Det Bronk, "thought is a prelude to action." Because he usually preached what he practiced, I consider the following paragraph from a speech at a high school graduation, late in his life, to reveal his personal experience. Life is a wonderful journey through a beautiful world it is filled with glorious adventures, and the only danger ahead is that we spend our time on the trifles and miss the rich experiences.
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From page 70... ...
The Johnson Foundation for Medical Physics (1929) was developed with the idea that research on basic biological problems would best serve the purposes implied in the name.
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From page 71... ...
The world has lost an outstanding citizen and public servant, but will be forever enriched by the achievements and memories of a truly unique individual." ~ ~ From "Tribute to Detlev Wulf Bronk adopted by the National Science Board at its 178th meeting, January 15-16, 1976."
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From page 72... ...
72 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS MOST OF THE specific information contained in this memoir was gleaned from Det's correspondence, notes, speeches, and publications that are now part of the Archives of The Rockefeller University and that of the NAS. I thank Mitchell H
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From page 73... ...
Electrical conductivity, electrical potential and hydrogen ion concentration measurements on the submaxillary gland of the dog recorded with continuous photographic methods.
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Low alveolar oxygen pressure, sodium cyanide and the carotid and femoral flow of blood.
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From page 75... ...
. Afferent impulses in the carotid sinus and aortic nerves.
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From page 76... ...
Synaptic transmission in a sympathetic ganglion.
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From page 77... ...
Brink. The chemical excitation of nerve cells.
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From page 78... ...
Chemical excitation of nerve cells. Trans.
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From page 79... ...
Soc., 88: 189-95. 1945 Physical structure and biological action of nerve cells, with some references to problems of human flight.
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From page 80... ...
Effects of circulatory arrest and oxygen lack on synaptic transmission in sympathetic ganglion..~.
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From page 81... ...
. Rhythmic action and respiration of nerve cells.
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From page 82... ...
The graduate program of The Rockefeller Institute.
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Convocation, Rockefeller Institute, June 10, 1960. Opening remarks, conferring of degrees.
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Opening remarks, conferring of degree. Conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Science Honoris Causa on Thomas Milton Rivers, Director Emeritus, The Rockefeller Institute, Hugh Scott Taylor, President of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and Dean of the Graduate School, Emeritus, of Princeton University.
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From page 85... ...
The place of psychology in an ideal university (as a member of the 1947 Harvard commission)
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From page 86... ...
Alfred Newton Richards, 1876-1966. Yearb.
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From page 87... ...
Sci., 37:27. 1976 Alfred Newton Richards, 1876-1966.
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