Biophysical Society Bulletin | January 2018

Obituary

J. Walter Woodbury

many colleagues, postdocs, and graduate students (1-2). Woodbury championed the Hodgkin & Huxley papers writing the first clear and accessible textbook chapter on nerve impulse conduction in “Medical Physiology and Biophysics” edited by Ruch

J. Walter Woodbury , an eminent American physiologist and bio- physicist, died on November 29, 2017 at the age of 94. He was an original member of the Biophysical Society. In 1971, he founded the Membrane Biophysics Subgroup and persuaded Kenneth Cole to

Hodgkin and Woodbury, about 1952

and Fulton (1960). Woodbury describes the start (see photo), “I first met Hodgkin at the 1952 Cold Spring Harbor sympo- sium on ‘The Neuron.’ Hodgkin gave a brilliant summary of the five Hodgkin-Huxley papers, which were in press at that time. I was indelibly impressed with the elegant simplicity and in- credible explanatory power of their theory. It easily explained a wide range of puzzling phenomena. Their theory was an order of magnitude jump in our knowledge of nerve function and laid a rock-solid foundation for the elucidation of the functions of the entire nervous system.”(2) In 1963, Hodgkin and Huxley shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with John C. Eccles . Woodbury wrote the nomination letter for Hodgkin and Huxley.

J. Walter Woodbury

make a substantial donation to establish the annual K. S. Cole Award. He was made a Fellow of the Biophysical Society in 2006. During his research career he: • Used glass microelectrodes to measure trans-membrane potentials of cells from spinal cord, sensory cortex, thyroid, liver and muscle. • Invented the floating electrode for intracellular recordings in a beating heart, leading to his analysis that heart cells are connected electrically by (what are now known as) gap junction channels. • Wrote a seminal textbook chapter on “Body Acid-Base State and its Regulation.” • With Henry Eyring wrote three papers on the basic chemical mechanisms of general anesthesia. • Extended Eyring’s absolute reaction rate theory to account for the puzzling characteristics of current flow through the ion channels in nerve cell membrane. • With his brother, Dixon M. Woodbury , studied the basis of epilepsy and proved that stimulation of the Vagus nerve can treat human epilepsy. Over 100,000 epilepsy patients have been helped by VNS implants. Woodbury was born in St. George, Utah on 7 August 1923. At age five, his father, Angus M. Woodbury , was appointed to the biology faculty at the University of Utah and the family moved to Salt Lake City. Woodbury also attended “the U” taking the maximum courses load so to graduate quickly and help with the war effort. After graduating in physics, he worked on radar development at MIT from 1943-1945. Following the war, he earned a PhD in physiology at Utah, spending some of his time working with Henry Eyring . From 1950-1972 he was a faculty member in the highly respected Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington in Seattle. During that time, he worked with and influenced

In 1963, Woodbury applied for and was awarded one of the original 24 LINCs (Labo- ratory INstrument Comput- er) from the NIH. Following one month of training on its hardware and software, the LINC went to the Univer- sity of Washington, where Woodbury made it available to students, postdocs, and faculty, giving all a jump on the computer revolution.

Woodbury assembles a LINC at MIT, Aug 1963.

After a sabbatical with Henry Eyring (1972-73), Woodbury took a position in the Department of Physiology at the University of Utah Medical School. He continued his research and became the course leader for the physiology course, among other academic duties. He was a mentor and friend to many (including the authors), and guided students toward careers in biophysics for five de- cades. He officially retired in 1993 but continued in teaching for three years and in experimental research through 2002. Until his death, he worked on a book about the function of the brain.

— Dixon J. Woodbury (son) and David D. Busath

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