by admin | Jun 30, 2017 | Past Fellows
Abbreviated Biography of Emeritus Professor Johan KoeslagM.B., Ch.B., Ph.D. (Cape Town) Johan Koeslag was born in Witbank, Mpumalanga (previously the Eastern Transvaal), in 1940. He spent his childhood in Indonesia, Holland, Zululand, and Kenya. He received his secondary schooling at the Prince of Wales School in Nairobi, Kenya, from where he went on to study Medicine at the University of Cape Town from 1959 to 1964. He did his internship in Medicine, and in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Groote Schuur Hospital in 1965, followed by a senior internship in Surgery at McCord’s Hospital in Durban. He then worked as a Registrar in Internal Medicine at the Erasmus University Academic Hospital in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. After a short spell in General Practice in Durban, he joined the Department of Physiology at the University of Cape Town as a lecturer in 1972. He obtained his PhD in 1980 (Thesis title: “Post-exercise ketosis in non-diabetic subjects”), and was promoted to ad hominem Associate Professor in Physiology and Human Biology in 1987. He was appointed Head of the Department of Medical Physiology at the University of Stellenbosch in 1990. He has published 82 full articles in professional journals, on a wide variety of subjects ranging from exercise physiology, post-exercise ketosis, physiological homeostats (especially the Insulin-Glucagon-hGH counter-regulatory system, and how disturbances of its mechanism might cause Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus), as well as various aspects of evolutionary biology (such as the engine of speciation, the evolution of sex, the evolutionary affordability of males, punctuated evolutionary equilibria, the evolution of cooperation and koinophilia, which he believes provides a parsimonious explanation of many of the above...
by admin | Dec 16, 2014 | Past Fellows
Bern Meyer was born in the Mossel Bay district on 6 March 1919 and died peacefully, after a short illness, in Pretoria on 30 March 2008. He obtained a BSc degree in Chemistry and Physiology at the University of Stellenbosch in 1937. This was followed by a Doctorate in Physiology in 1946, an MBChB degree in 1951, and an MD in Pathology in 1963, all at the University of Pretoria where he became Professor and Head of the Department of Physiology until his retirement in 1984. He then joined the Department of Nuclear Medicine as Associate Professor and Acting Head for several periods until just a week before his death. Not only was Bern a dedicated professor of generations of medical students but also an accomplished researcher as Director of the Medical Research Council Units of Electrophysiology and Cellular Physiology. However, his greatest interest and achievement was writing the many books on Human Physiology, in English and Afrikaans, which became the prescribed textbooks of many medical faculties in South Africa. During his academic life he was honoured with distinctions by many national and international institutions for his exemplary sense of duty and dedication to medical education. He received the dux docens laureatus and MD (honoris causa) from the Universities of Pretoria and the Free State, Pretorian of the Year from the City of Pretoria, and Special Distinction by the Medical Research Council. He was a member of SAMA for 54 years. Excerpt obtained with permission from the South African Medical...
by admin | Dec 16, 2014 | Past Fellows
Former Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and former Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Helen served as a member of the University of Witwatersrand’s Senior Executive Team, and its Senate and Council. Helen dedicated a substantial portion of her life to Wits University, with her association spanning approximately 45 years, when she first enrolled as a medical student in 1969. She opted to complete a Medical BSc (1973) and then read for a BSc Honours degree (1974), before graduating with a PhD in Physiology in 1977. She joined the University as a member of staff in 1978 as a part-time lecturer and steadily advanced through the ranks. In 2001, she was appointed as Head of the School of Physiology, and in July 2006 as Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences. In 2011, Helen assumed the role of Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research. She stepped down from this post in 2013, when she fell ill. Professor of Thermal Physiology at Wits, Helen was an accomplished researcher who was widely published. Her research focused on the physiology of temperature regulation in mammals and humans, with particular interest in the fetus and newborn. She also researched the physiological mechanisms underlying fever and the associated changes in non-thermal physiology. She published approximately 70 papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals, including 12 chapters in books. Internationally recognised, Helen was a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, a Member of the Physiological Society (London), an Honorary Fellow of the Physiological Society of Southern Africa, a member of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa and a Member of the Thermal Physiology Commission of the International...
by admin | Dec 16, 2014 | Past Fellows
Archie Sloan was born in Glasgow in 1917. He attended Glasgow University from 1934 to 1940, obtaining a BSc degree in 1937 and an MBChB (with commendation) in 1940. After a year as a House Physician in the Glasgow Western Infirmary, he joined the RAMC from 1941 to 1946; being mentioned in Despatches in 1943. Thereafter he continued his scholarly career by being awarded an MRCP (London) in 1948, an MD (Glasgow) (with honours) in 1955 (he was also awarded the Bellahouston Medal), an FRCP (Glasgow) in 1964 and a PhD (UCT) in 1966. In 1967 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and served on Council for 12 years and held the office of President in 1977 to 1978. In 1955 he left Scotland to take up the Chair in Physiology at the University of Cape Town; a post he held for 25 years until he retired in 1980. Always interested in history, he continued studying the subject as an Emeritus Professor and graduated with a BA from UCT in 1983 with History and Italian as principal subjects. One of the legacies of his interest in matters historical is that he collected and bound, in five volumes, the publications of the Department of Physiology (together with documentation on the members of staff) from its inception in 1913 to 1977. Archie published 94 articles in a wide variety of local and international journals and wrote a text book of Physiology for Physiotherapists, as well as a book on English Medicine in the Seventieth Century. Most of his articles were on cardiovascular and exercise physiology...
