Theodore Holmes Bullock (1915-2005)
http://www.100md.com
《生物学报告》
University of California Irvine
Ted Bullock’s life as a neuroscientist spanned seven and one-half decades. It began with some neurohistological studies of brain degeneration that Ted did while he was still a high school student, and ended with his death on December 20, 2005. Although Ted became an Emeritus Professor in 1982 and had already celebrated his 90th birthday, he maintained an active research laboratory and was involved in writing and editing scientific papers until the last days of his life.
Ted was born in 1915 of missionary parents in China. After several trans-Pacific visits, in 1928 he and his family returned permanently to the United States, to Southern California. Ted’s scientific interest and talent were apparent early. While in high school he did the histological studies mentioned above, and during summers he took Marine Biology and other courses at the Pomona College Marine Biological Laboratory. Ted received an Associate of Arts degree from Pasadena Junior College (1934), and an A.B. (1936) and Ph.D. (1940) from the University of California, Berkeley. His Ph.D. research, done under the supervision of S. F. Light, was on the organization of the nervous system in enteropneusts, a group of worms generally regarded as a sister group to the chordates. After receiving his Ph.D., Ted accepted postdoctoral fellowships and later a teaching position at Yale. While at Yale, Ted spent summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, where he investigated the functioning of nerve nets in coelenterates and the structure and physiology of giant nerve fibers in annelids. After several years at Yale, Ted took a faculty position at the University of Missouri, and a few years later he joined the Department of Zoology at UCLA. In the summers of 1955–1957, Ted was an instructor in the Invertebrate Zoology course at MBL. A decade later he served as the director of this course, coordinating the activities of the 7-9 faculty members and 50-60 students involved in the program. In 1966, Ted left UCLA to become part of the neuroscience group being developed at the University of California, San Diego, where he remained until his death.
Ted’s biological interests were extraordinarily broad. He is best known as a neuroscientist, but when he was a young faculty member he and his students did important studies on the effects of temperature on biological processes, on oxygen transport, and on ecology and behavior. During his career he published important papers on the anatomy and physiology of nervous systems in nearly all major animal groups—coelenterates, segmented worms, arthropods, echinoderms, molluscs, and chordates. His research interests ranged across organizational levels from mechanisms of conduction in single axons and of transmission across unitary synapses to considerations of the origin and possible functional significance of the electrical waves, recorded as EEG signals, that are generated by the summed activity of large populations of neurons. Ted wrote many important, insightful reviews, a common feature of which was the plea to his readers to venture beyond established paradigms in thinking about how neurons interact with one another. In various publications he asked us to consider that information might be conducted along axons in ways other than the established frequency code (for example, as changing inter-spike interval patterns independent of overall frequency, or as phase relations between signals in parallel axons); to entertain the idea that field potentials might influence firing patterns of neurons and be mechanisms by which neurons communicate; and to think about the features, other than simple brain size, that might account for the differences in intellectual capacity between members of different taxonomic groups.
For many neurobiologists, Ted is best known as the senior author of the important, two-volume monograph Structure and Function in the Nervous Systems of Invertebrates, published in 1977. In the early 1950s, Ted assigned to himself the task of updating and translating from German a monograph on the comparative anatomy of invertebrate nervous systems published in 1928 by Bertil Hanstr?m. The immensity of the task soon became apparent, and Ted enlisted G. A. Horridge as a co-author and sought other authors for a few individual chapters. Hanstr?m’s book was 628 pages long and included nearly 2000 citations. Bullock and Horridge’s treatment, when completed, had more than 3 times as many pages and 5 times as many citations as did Hanstr?m’s. This monumental work, which is filled with magnificent illustrations, has been called, quite appropriately, the bible of invertebrate neurobiology.
Ted received many awards recognizing his contributions to science. He was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1961) and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1963). He was awarded the Karl Spencer Lashley Prize of the American Philosophical Society (1968) and the Ralph W. Gerard Prize of the Society for Neuroscience (1984). He was twice selected to present the Alexander Forbes Lectures at MBL. He was elected president of the American Society of Zoologists (1964), The Society for Neuroscience (1973), and the International Society for Neuroethology (1984).
Ted is survived by Martha, his cherished wife for more than 68 years, his son and daughter, and 5 grandchildren. He is also survived by a very large academic family. More than 100 scientists passed through Ted’s laboratory as postdoctoral fellows and research associates. Thirty-six students received Ph.D.’s under Ted’s guidance, and most of these have had Ph.D. students of their own, so Ted is now academic father, grandfather, great-grandfather, ... of more than 300 Ph.D. holders.
Throughout his life Ted was an adventurous scientific explorer, continually seeking undiscovered phenomena and new unifying principles. He took pleasure and pride in his discoveries and in his theoretical, often rather speculative, reviews. He allowed himself to take vicarious pleasure from interesting findings by others in his field and even in areas for which Ted would not claim any personal expertise. He was a kind, generous colleague. Ted will long be remembered for his important books, research papers, and reviews, but his most lasting legacy is likely to be the influence that he had on students and associates as a mentor and role model. The values which governed Ted’s scientific career and which he transmitted to his students and colleagues will be passed on in turn to their students and influence many following generations.(Robert K. Josephson)
Ted Bullock’s life as a neuroscientist spanned seven and one-half decades. It began with some neurohistological studies of brain degeneration that Ted did while he was still a high school student, and ended with his death on December 20, 2005. Although Ted became an Emeritus Professor in 1982 and had already celebrated his 90th birthday, he maintained an active research laboratory and was involved in writing and editing scientific papers until the last days of his life.
Ted was born in 1915 of missionary parents in China. After several trans-Pacific visits, in 1928 he and his family returned permanently to the United States, to Southern California. Ted’s scientific interest and talent were apparent early. While in high school he did the histological studies mentioned above, and during summers he took Marine Biology and other courses at the Pomona College Marine Biological Laboratory. Ted received an Associate of Arts degree from Pasadena Junior College (1934), and an A.B. (1936) and Ph.D. (1940) from the University of California, Berkeley. His Ph.D. research, done under the supervision of S. F. Light, was on the organization of the nervous system in enteropneusts, a group of worms generally regarded as a sister group to the chordates. After receiving his Ph.D., Ted accepted postdoctoral fellowships and later a teaching position at Yale. While at Yale, Ted spent summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, where he investigated the functioning of nerve nets in coelenterates and the structure and physiology of giant nerve fibers in annelids. After several years at Yale, Ted took a faculty position at the University of Missouri, and a few years later he joined the Department of Zoology at UCLA. In the summers of 1955–1957, Ted was an instructor in the Invertebrate Zoology course at MBL. A decade later he served as the director of this course, coordinating the activities of the 7-9 faculty members and 50-60 students involved in the program. In 1966, Ted left UCLA to become part of the neuroscience group being developed at the University of California, San Diego, where he remained until his death.
Ted’s biological interests were extraordinarily broad. He is best known as a neuroscientist, but when he was a young faculty member he and his students did important studies on the effects of temperature on biological processes, on oxygen transport, and on ecology and behavior. During his career he published important papers on the anatomy and physiology of nervous systems in nearly all major animal groups—coelenterates, segmented worms, arthropods, echinoderms, molluscs, and chordates. His research interests ranged across organizational levels from mechanisms of conduction in single axons and of transmission across unitary synapses to considerations of the origin and possible functional significance of the electrical waves, recorded as EEG signals, that are generated by the summed activity of large populations of neurons. Ted wrote many important, insightful reviews, a common feature of which was the plea to his readers to venture beyond established paradigms in thinking about how neurons interact with one another. In various publications he asked us to consider that information might be conducted along axons in ways other than the established frequency code (for example, as changing inter-spike interval patterns independent of overall frequency, or as phase relations between signals in parallel axons); to entertain the idea that field potentials might influence firing patterns of neurons and be mechanisms by which neurons communicate; and to think about the features, other than simple brain size, that might account for the differences in intellectual capacity between members of different taxonomic groups.
For many neurobiologists, Ted is best known as the senior author of the important, two-volume monograph Structure and Function in the Nervous Systems of Invertebrates, published in 1977. In the early 1950s, Ted assigned to himself the task of updating and translating from German a monograph on the comparative anatomy of invertebrate nervous systems published in 1928 by Bertil Hanstr?m. The immensity of the task soon became apparent, and Ted enlisted G. A. Horridge as a co-author and sought other authors for a few individual chapters. Hanstr?m’s book was 628 pages long and included nearly 2000 citations. Bullock and Horridge’s treatment, when completed, had more than 3 times as many pages and 5 times as many citations as did Hanstr?m’s. This monumental work, which is filled with magnificent illustrations, has been called, quite appropriately, the bible of invertebrate neurobiology.
Ted received many awards recognizing his contributions to science. He was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1961) and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1963). He was awarded the Karl Spencer Lashley Prize of the American Philosophical Society (1968) and the Ralph W. Gerard Prize of the Society for Neuroscience (1984). He was twice selected to present the Alexander Forbes Lectures at MBL. He was elected president of the American Society of Zoologists (1964), The Society for Neuroscience (1973), and the International Society for Neuroethology (1984).
Ted is survived by Martha, his cherished wife for more than 68 years, his son and daughter, and 5 grandchildren. He is also survived by a very large academic family. More than 100 scientists passed through Ted’s laboratory as postdoctoral fellows and research associates. Thirty-six students received Ph.D.’s under Ted’s guidance, and most of these have had Ph.D. students of their own, so Ted is now academic father, grandfather, great-grandfather, ... of more than 300 Ph.D. holders.
Throughout his life Ted was an adventurous scientific explorer, continually seeking undiscovered phenomena and new unifying principles. He took pleasure and pride in his discoveries and in his theoretical, often rather speculative, reviews. He allowed himself to take vicarious pleasure from interesting findings by others in his field and even in areas for which Ted would not claim any personal expertise. He was a kind, generous colleague. Ted will long be remembered for his important books, research papers, and reviews, but his most lasting legacy is likely to be the influence that he had on students and associates as a mentor and role model. The values which governed Ted’s scientific career and which he transmitted to his students and colleagues will be passed on in turn to their students and influence many following generations.(Robert K. Josephson)