The Academy of Science of St. Louis honored two Washington University scientists for their distinguished careers of service and their accomplishments at its annual awards dinner Thursday, March 20, at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Receiving the academy's Peter H. Raven Lifetime Award were Paul E. Lacy, M.D., Ph.D., professor emeritus of pathology and former chair of the Department of Pathology at the School of Medicine, and Robert M. Walker, Ph.D., the McDonnell Professor of physics and director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences in Arts and Sciences.
Raven, Ph.D., director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, is the Engelmann Professor of Botany in the Department of Biology in Arts and Sciences at Washington University. The academy established the award "to symbolize Raven's commitment to seeking the truth through scientific discovery and its use for the betterment of humankind."
William H. Danforth, chairman of the University's Board of Trustees, was the featured speaker at the awards dinner. University alumnus James M. Bornholdt received the academy's Innovation Award, which is given to a scientist younger than 40. Principal engineer at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, Bornholdt received a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University.
With the ultimate goal of curing human diabetes, Lacy pioneered the process of islet transplantation. His first step was to develop a method of maintaining islets in organ cultures virtually indefinitely. This provided material for immunology studies and experimental transplants of the cells. He later proved that islet transplantation could normalize blood sugar and reverse other complications in diabetic rats.
In 1990, Lacy's research led to a successful transplantation of islet cells into a diabetic patient who had needed daily insulin injections for the previous 27 years. Since the operation, the patient has led an active life without insulin shots.
"Lacy has always been at the forefront of whatever research endeavor he undertook," said Philip E. Cryer, M.D., the Irene E. and Michael M. Karl Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the medical school.
His work in the late 1950s on defects in irradiated copper still is regarded as the final word in that area. In the early 1960s, Walker's discovery of fossil nuclear particle tracks in minerals led to new developments in geochronology and cosmic ray physics. In particular, his discovery of tracks from nuclei heavier than iron opened a new frontier of cosmic ray physics. He subsequently pioneered the use of plastics to measure such nuclei in cosmic ray balloon flights.
Walker was a member of the NASA committee that allocated samples of the first returned lunar materials. His laboratory at Washington University played an important role in the samples' initial study, using the moon rocks to measure the past history of solar radiation and cosmic rays.
His recent achievements include the design of micrometeorite capture cells that were flown aboard NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility; the verification of the extraterrestrial origin of stratospheric dust particles; and the successful search for in situ interstellar grains in meteorites.
"Bob Walker's firm conviction in the good of science brought about the creation in 1960 of VITA (Volunteers In Technical Assistance), which he served as first president," said Thomas J. Bernatowicz, Ph.D., research associate professor of physics. "At a discussion of the Mohawk Association of Scientists and Engineers, Walker asked the assembled group how much money was being channeled to the Third World for technical assistance. Appalled by the answer, he helped found VITA, which has grown to 7,000 engineers and scientists who volunteer to work on practical problems of technical development for Third World countries."
Both Lacy and Walker are fellows of the Academy of Science of St. Louis. Previous Raven Lifetime Award winners include John W. Olney, M.D., professor of psychiatry and of pathology at the School of Medicine, who was recognized in 1996, and the late Michel M. Ter-Pogossian, Ph.D., then professor emeritus of radiology at the medical school's Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, honored in 1995.
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