1.1
Historical Perspectives for Brody Memorial Lectureship
Harold Johnson, Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO
Samual Brody was a professor of Dairy Husbandry, University of Missouri, from 1920-1956. He was one of our greatest minds engaged in basic research and applied science in agriculture and the livestock industry, however many of his research contributions were beneficial to human welfare. Early in Dr. Brody's career he became an authority in growth and energetics of agricultural animals with many publications in Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletins and Scientific Journals. A compilation of these works was published in his book entitled Bioenergetics and Growth, Reinhold Publishing Corp., N.Y., 1946.
Throughout Dr. Brody's career his goal was to integrate all of the physiological functions within the body and, later in his career, the many interactions of the environment/climate and the meteorological environment on body functions-especially as they relate to agricultural efficiencies of growth and production of meat, milk and eggs.
Thus, in the 1940-50s, Dr. Brody became recognized as an Animal Biometeorologist. During this time period, Dr.Brody became well acquainted with Dr.Fred Sargent, one of the co-founders of ISB, International Society of Biometeorology. Soon after the publication of his book in 1946, Dr.Brody began to devote his interests to chapters in his book entitled Homeostasis and Homeothermy, and the Population chapter which dealt with the predictions of future world populations and food resources.
In 1948 a collaborative project on the Effects of Climatic Factors on Livestock, especially cattle, was established with the USDA, ARS, UMC Agricultural Engineering, and Dairy Husbandry. As Dr. Brody's last graduate student, I was leader of the project from 1957-1990, and was invited to present this historical perspective. I was invited to join this project first as a graduate student, then as an instructor. After the completion of my MS in Cell Physiology, Dr. Brody encouraged me to "work with cells as they relate to organ functions, the whole organism, and how the whole animal relates and interacts with the environment- the meteorological environment". I received my PhD. in Environmental Physiology in 1957, and continued project leadership until 1990.
Dr.Brody was best remembered for his scholarly but often humorous lectures. Dr. Brody died suddenly from a massive stroke while at work. After his death, the Brody Memorial Lectures were established, and have continued to date. It was this same year,1956-57 that our International Society of Biometeorology was founded.
The Environmental Physiology project continued with many graduate students and technicians working on some phase of animal biometeorology and on a wide variety of domestic and laboratory animals. The program evolved and changed with the availability of new cellular, endocrine, and physiological technology. A larger and more modern "state of the art" environmental facility for domestic and laboratory animals was dedicated as the Brody Environmental Laboratory in 1983. Dr. Donald Spiers assumed the project leadership in 1990.
It is appropriate that the Brody Memorial Lectures support this plenary session on Global Environmental Changes as they affect Mankind and other Biological Organisms.
Session 1, Brody Plenary Session: Global Change and its Impacts
Monday, 28 October 2002, 9:45 AM-10:00 AM
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