William Francis Ganong Jr.

William Francis Ganong Jr. (July 6, 1924[1] – December 23, 2007[2]) was a Harvard-educated American physiologist, and was one of the first scientists to trace how the brain controls important internal functions of the body.

William Francis Ganong Jr.
Born(1924-07-06)July 6, 1924
Northampton, Massachusetts
United States
DiedDecember 23, 2007(2007-12-23) (aged 83)
Albany, California
United States
EducationHarvard Medical School
OccupationScientist, educator, writer
Spouse(s)Ruth Jackson
ChildrenWilliam Francis III, Susan, Anna, James
Parent(s)William Francis Ganong &
Anna Hobbet Ganong

Life

William Francis "Fran" Ganong Jr. was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, the son of renowned botanist and Smith College professor William Francis Ganong Sr. and geologist Anna Hobbet Ganong.[3] Dr. Ganong died in Albany, California at the age of 83, after living with prostate cancer for 17 years.[4]

Career

Dr. Ganong was a graduate of Harvard Medical School and served with the United States Army during World War II and the Korean War in which he was part of a medical team that established a MASH unit, the Hemorrhagic Fever Center.

He was one of the discoverers of Lown-Ganong-Levine syndrome, an electrical abnormality that affects heart rhythm.[5]

Dr. Ganong became an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1955. Three years later, he moved to the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) to help start a research program in physiology. In the course of his research, he discovered that blood pressure and fluid balance – the salt and water levels in the body – are regulated by hormones from the adrenal gland and the kidney, a key finding for developing ways to treat hypertension.[3]

He was chairman of the physiology department at UCSF from 1970 to 1987, and served as the 50th president of The American Physiological Society, from 1977 to 1978.[6] He retired in 1999, but continued research in neuroendocrinology,[3] becoming the Lange Professor of Physiology Emeritus at UCSF.[7]

Publications

Dr. Ganong was the author of the influential textbook Review of Medical Physiology, first published in 1963 and, as of 2019, in its 26th edition.[8] It has been translated into 18 languages.

References
  1. Archived 2009-02-15 at the Wayback Machine 2002 bio
  2. "Leading UCSF neuroendocrinologist and medical leader dies". Archived from the original on 2008-01-19. Retrieved 2008-01-15.
  3. He preferred to be called "Fran". Dennis Hevesi (January 12, 2008). "W. F. Ganong, 83, Expert in Brain's Control of Body, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  4. "William F. Ganong - memorial service at UCSF". SFGate. San Francisco Chronicle. 23 February 2008. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  5. Lown B, Ganong WF, Levine SA (May 1952). "The syndrome of short P-R interval, normal QRS complex and paroxysmal rapid heart action". Circulation. 5 (5): 693–706. doi:10.1161/01.cir.5.5.693. PMID 14926053.
  6. "APS presidents". Archived from the original on 2008-08-29. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  7. 2003 citation
  8. Barrett, Kim E.; Barman, Susan M.; Boitano, Scott; Brooks, Heddwen L. (2015). Ganong's Review of Medical Physiology (25th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education / Medical. ISBN 978-0071825108.


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