FATHERS and SONS in CHEMISTRY The Three Gortners To THE list of Fathers and Sons in JL American Chemistry it is a pleasure to add Ross Aiken Gortner and his two sons, Ross Aiken Gortner, Jr., and Willis Alway Gortner.
and chief of the division, a position which he has held to the present date. As a teacher of biochemistry to stu dents interested in plants and animals, Dr. Gortner gradually developed a unique course that finally arrived in the published form, "Outlines of Biochemistry," which has been the foundation for the biochemi cal knowledge of many a student. After several reprintings, he is now revising it to appear in a much enlarged form this com ing summer. Among the subjects of his more than 200 published papers may be mentioned ani mal pigments, melanin, chemistry of em bryonic growth, physicochemical proper ties of plant saps, colloids, and proteins.
at Cold Spring Harbor. He also majored in chemistry at the University of Minne sota and received the B.A. degree, cum laude, in 1934. He then joined the staff of the Research Laboratory of General Mills, Inc., where he stayed until 1937. He is now at the University of Rochester as a teaching assistant, working for his Ph.D. in the Department of Biochemistry with W. R. Bloor. He also received the Thomas F. An drews prize for undergraduate research from the Minnesota Chapter of Sigma Xi and is a member of the AMERICAN CHEMI
CAL SOCIETY, Signai Xi, Phi Lambda Upsilon, and Alpha Chi Sigma. Weiser H o n o r I n i t i a t e o f Alpha Chi Sigma THE Honor Initiate at the Fifteenth 1 Biennial Conclave of Alpha Chi Sigma Fraternitv will be HARRY BOYER WEISER,
dean of Rice Institute, Houston, Texas. The initiation will be at 9 P. M. on June 23 at the Hotel Jung, New Orleans, La. Roger F. Detman, Psi Chapter. Louisiana State University, is chairman or the Initiation Committee. Electrochemical Society Awards Prize t o Y o u n g Author HE Electrochemical Society has awarded to R. Spencer Soanes, of Toronto, Ontario, the society's Prize to Young Authors, for the paper published jointly by A. H. Heatley and Mr. Soanes, entitled "Potential Distribution in High Current Carbon Arcs in Air." Mr. Soanes is a Research Fellow with the Ontario Research Foundation, Toronto, Canada.
T ROSS A I K E N GORTNER
Ross Aiken Gortner was born in 1885 in a sod house on a farm in Holt County, Nebr., and shortly after was taken by his minister father to a mission in Africa. There his father died, and his mother and he returned to Nebraska. While at Nebraska Weslevan University, which gave him a B.S. degree in 1907, he formed the friendship with his "chem. prof.,"
New Appointments t o Chemis try S t a f f a t B r o w n U n i v e r s i t y
WILLIS ALWAY GORTNER
Some of the societies of which he is a member are the
AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY, American Association for the Advancement of Science (fellow), National Academy of Sciences, American Society of Biological Chemistrv, Society of Ex perimental Biology and Medicine, Ameri can Society of Naturalists, Society of Rheology, Sigma Xi, Phi Lambda Upsilon, Gamma Sigma Delta, Phi Kappa Phi, and Alpha Chi Sigma. He has been Wisconsin Alumni Foundation lecturer, George Fisher Baker lecturer (pub lished as "Selected Topics in Colloid Chemistry," Cornell University Press, 1937), and Priestley lecturer. In 1932 Lawrence College granted him the hon orary degree of doctor of science· His oldest son, Ross Aiken Gortner, Jr., was born at Cold Spring Harbor in 1912. He received the B.A. degree in chemistry, Frederick J. Alway, which has mellowed magna cum laude, in 1933 and the M.S. through the years. From here he went to in biochemistry in 1934 from the Univer the University of Toronto to work with sity of Minnesota. The University of Lash Miller for an M.A. degree which was Michigan conferred the Ph.D. in 1937, his granted in 1908. The following year he thesis topic being "Detoxification ot came under the influence of Marston T. Selenium in the Animal Organism." Bogert at Columbia University and re He is now an instructor and a member of ceived his Ph.D. in 1909. The next five the Honors College faculty of Wesleyan years he spent as research biochemist at University, Middletown, Conn., teaching the New York Station of Experimental biochemistry and zoology. Evolution of the Carnegie Institution of As an undergraduate the Minnesota Washington at Cold Spring Harbor. The Chapter of Sigma Xi awarded him the fall of 1914 saw him rejoin Dr. Alway, who Thomas F. Andrews prize for under had moved to the University of Minne graduate research. He is a member of sots, in the Department of Soils. Two the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. Sigma years later he transferred to the Division Xi, Phi Lambda Upsilon, Alpha Chi of Agricultural Biochemistry with the rank Sigma, Gamma Alpha, and Phi Beta of associate professor and, when R. W. Kappa. Thatcher was made dean of the Depart ment of Agriculture, he became professor Willis Alway Gortner was born in 1913 309 ROSS A I K E N GORTNER, J E .
P A U L C. CROSS
TΗΕ following new appointments have been made to the staff of the Depart ment of Chemistry at Brown University: associate professor of chemistry, PAUL C. CROSS, who has been assistant professor at Stanford University since 1936; assistant professor of chemistry, JOHN P. HOWE,
now instructor at Ohio State University; instructors, MAX F. ROT, University of Illinois, and JOHN R. LÂCHER, Sheldon
Traveling Fellow in 1936-37, who spent most of his time at Cambridge.
