Keith R. Porter

Keith Roberts Porter (June 11, 1912 – May 2, 1997) was a Canadian-American cell biologist. He performed pioneering biology research using electron microscopy of cells,[1] such as work on the 9 + 2 microtubule structure in the axoneme of cilia. Porter also contributed to the development of other experimental methods for cell culture and nuclear transplantation. He also was responsible for naming the endoplasmic reticulum.[2]

Keith Roberts Porter
Born	June 11, 1912 Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
Died	May 2, 1997 (aged 84) Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Nationality	Canadian, American
Occupation	Cell biologist

Early life and education

Keith Porter was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia on June 11, 1912, the son of Aaron and Josephine Roberts Porter.[3] He was an undergraduate at Acadia University and a graduate student at Harvard University. Starting in the late 1930s he did research at The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. He became a citizen of the United States in 1947.

Career

Porter helped found the American Society for Cell Biology and the Journal of Cell Biology. The Keith R. Porter Endowment for Cell Biology, founded in 1981, supports an annual Keith R. Porter Lecture at the conference of American Society for Cell Biology.[4]

Porter moved to Harvard University in 1961 and to the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1968. When he retired in 1982, at age 70, the university awarded him an honorary degree and renamed “his” building Porter Biosciences. He retired in 1982 and did post-retirement work at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the University of Pennsylvania. UMBC's Keith R. Porter Core Imaging Facility is dedicated to Porter.

Recognition

In 1970, together with Albert Claude and George E. Palade, Porter was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University. Porter's colleagues Albert Claude, Christian de Duve and George E. Palade were awarded a Nobel Prize in 1974 "for describing the structure and function of organelles in biological cells", work that Porter is also well known for.[5]

Awards

• 1964 Gairdner Foundation International Award
• 1970 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University
• 1971 Dickson Prize in Science
• 1971 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
• 1976 National Medal of Science
• 1981 E. B. Wilson Medal

References

1. Cooper, Geoffrey M. (2000). "Ch. 1: Section: Electron Microscopy". The Cell — A Molecular Approach (2nd ed.). Sunderland MA: Sinauer Associates. ISBN 978-0-87893-106-4.
2. Porter KR, Claude A, Fullam EF (1945). "A Study of Tissue Culture Cells by Electron Microscopy". J Exp Med. 81 (3): 233–246. doi:10.1084/jem.81.3.233. PMC 2135493. PMID 19871454.
3. Keith R. Porter, 84; Set Groundwork for Field of Cell Biology New York Times
4. Keith R. Porter Endowment for Cell Biology
5. Erica Westly (October 6, 2008). "No Nobel for You: Top 10 Nobel Snubs". Scientific American.

• Moberg CL (March 1995). "The electron microscope enters the realm of the intact cell". J. Exp. Med. 181 (3): 831–7. doi:10.1084/jem.181.3.831. PMC 2191944. PMID 7869045.
• Moberg CL (1996). "Keith Porter and the Founding of the Tissue Culture Association". In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Anim. 32 (10): 663–9. doi:10.1007/BF02724051. S2CID 12844113.
• Satir P (July 1997). "Keith Roberts Porter: 1912–1997". J. Cell Biol. 138 (2): 223–4. doi:10.1083/jcb.138.2.223. PMC 2138189. PMID 9273349.
• Keith Porter biography and images, Image & Video Library of The American Society for Cell Biology

External links

• The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize
• Keith R. Porter Papers (1938–1993) at the University of Colorado at Boulder