Physiology

UK Physiology Department History

In 1878 the State College of Kentucky was separated from the Agricultural and Mechanical College. James Patterson became the first president of the State College, which subsequently became the University of Kentucky. In 1890, Joseph William Pryor was hired as the Chair of the Department of Anatomy and Physiology. Pryor was trained as an M.D. and he had a significant interest in the preparation of undergraduates for medical school. He instituted a pre-medical curriculum and began to teach premedical courses long before the Flexner Report of 1910 altered medical education throughout the country. Pryor retired in 1931 although he continued to publish until he was 90! He was succeeded as chairman by Richard S. Allen. During the Depression, there was little funding and almost no research and the Department languished. In the late 40’s, James Archdeacon and Louis L. Boyarsky were hired to promote research.

During the 1950’s there was an active move to create a medical school in Lexington to serve the eastern part of the state. The development of this school was championed by the Governor of Kentucky, Albert B. Chandler. The A.B. Chandler medical school was authorized by the Board of Trustees in 1956 and William Willard was hired as vice-president for the Medical Center. As a result of this reorganization, Dr. Loren D. Carlson was hired to Chair the newly created Department of Physiology and Biophysics. Drs. R.S. Allen, Archdeacon and Boyarsky were absorbed into the new department. Dr. Carlson hired a number of new scientists in the early 1960’s including Drs. Joseph Engelberg, David Megirian, Dennis Galvin, Judith Pratt, Fred Zechman, David Wekstein, Henry Hirsch, Robert Smith, Michael Wilson, James Zolman, and Ernest McCutcheon.

The rapid growth in faculty was supported by both local and national sources. With these resources, the department developed a strong doctoral program with an emphasis on individualized instruction. Advanced courses in systems physiology, quantitative analysis and biophysics were developed around the unifying conceptual thread of physiological systems control. When Carlson left in 1966 to become the Chief of Basic Sciences at Davis, California, Dr. Boyarsky served as the acting chair for two years. In 1968, Fred Zechman was appointed Chair and the Department experienced considerable growth from 9 faculty to 17. The new hires included: Drs. Donald Frazier, Bertram Peretz, Daniel Richardson, Barbara Birge, David Lally, Cobern Ott, David Randall, Lu-Yuan Lee, and Sandra Legan. This period was marked by increased collaboration with both clinical and basic science departments, program project grants and increased national funding.

In 1980, Dr. Zechman resigned his position as Chair to become the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies. He was succeeded by Dr. Donald Frazier who was the first doctoral student graduated from this department (under the mentorship of Lou Boyarsky). Under Frazier, the department continued to experience significant growth through the addition of faculty in both research and regular title lines, as well as collaborative efforts with the Tobacco and Health Research Institute and joint appointees. Most of the faculty increased the strength and profile of the department as a nationally recognized leader in Cardiovascular and Respiratory-related areas. Faculty joining the department included: Drs. Brian Jackson, Dexter Speck, John Diana, Kirk Barron, Bernard Fleming, Cheryl Heesch, Rob Revelette, Thomas Dowell, Thomas Getchell, Ronald Fiscus, and Doug McMahon.

Dr. Frazier resigned as Chair in 1992 and Dr. Wekstein was appointed as Acting Chair while a national search was conducted with the intention of strengthening the department in the area of Molecular Physiology. Dr. Phyllis Wise was selected as Chair and she served from 1993-2001. Under her direction, the department continued to grow and several additional regular faculty lines were created. The recruitment of research faculty and collaborative arrangements with Centers such as Aging and Spinal Cord further expanded the faculty ranks. With a growing strength in Molecular Physiology and a decrease in the area of Biophysics, the name was changed to simply the Department of Physiology. New faculty included: Drs. Jeff Falcone, Ok-Kyong Park-Sarge, Tim McClintock, Steve Estus, Jon Satin, Fadi Xu, Eric Smart, Marianna Karakashian, Malathi Srivatsan, George Smith, Lei Li, Ming Gong, Scott Diamond, and Rodney Guttman.

With the resignation of Dr. Wise, Dr. Jackson was appointed as Acting Chair and Drs. Alexander Rabchevsky and Melinda Wilson were hired. With the addition of Dr. Michael Reid as Departmental Chair in 2003, several faculty were added in the area of Muscle Physiology. Drs. Karyn Esser, Ken Campbell and Francisco Andrade joined the department in 2004 establishing a strong Muscle Physiology group.

References:

Boyarsky, L.L. Department of Physiology and Biophysics at University of Kentucky. The Physiologist 28: 482-484, 1985.

Hopkins, J.F. The University of Kentucky: Origins and Early Years. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1951.

Pryor, J.W. Doctor Pryor: An Autobiography. Cynthiana, KY 1943.

Straus, Robert. A Medical School Is Born. Kuttawa, KY: McClanahan Publishing House, 1996.