Ewald Rudolf Weibel

HonFRMS The Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) is a learned society for the promotion of microscopy. It was founded in 1839 as the Microscopical Society of London making it the oldest organisation of its kind in the world. In 1866, the society gained its ...

(5 March 1929 – 19 February 2019) was a Swiss anatomist and physiologist and former director of the Institute of Anatomy at the

University of Bern The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It is a compreh ...

. He was one of the first scientists to describe the endothelial organelles Weibel–Palade bodies, which are named after him and his Romanian-American colleague George Emil Palade. He was known for his work on the anatomy of gas exchange in lungs on multiple spatial scales using

stereology Stereology is the three-dimensional interpretation of two-dimensional cross sections of materials or tissues. It provides practical techniques for extracting quantitative information about a three-dimensional material from measurements made on two ...

Education and career

Weibel was born in Buchs in the Aargau canton of Switzerland. After studying medicine at the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

(state examination 1955, Dr. med. 1956), he spent several years studying in the USA at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in New Haven, as well as at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller University) in New York, most recently as a career Investigator for the Health Research Council of the City of New York. In 1963 he returned to the Anatomical Institute of the University of Zurich as an assistant professor and in 1966 he was appointed full professor and director of the Anatomical Institute at the

until his retirement in 1994. He was Rector of the

from 1984 to 1985. From 1979 until 1996 he was Visiting Agassiz Professor and Associate in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. After his retirement, he was Vice President and Secretary of the Maurice E. Müller Foundation for Orthopedic Surgery until 2000. He was founding president of the Union of Swiss Societies for Experimental Biology (1969-1972), President of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (1996-2000) and President of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (1997-2001). His scientific work covered four main areas: the morphometry of the human lung as the structural basis of the gas exchange function; the development of morphometric and stereological methods; the application of these methods in cell biology to measure the membrane system of the liver cell and the mitochondria in the muscles; integrative studies in comparative physiology, particularly on the question of the optimal structural basis of the organismic functions of the respiratory system, from the lungs to the muscle cells and their mitochondria, based on the hypothesis of symmorphosis. The discovery of the Weibel-Palade bodies in 1962 was an accidental observation. Ewald Weibel was married to the violinist and musicologist Verena Weibel-Trachsler.

Honors and awards

Weibel was awarded numerous awards and accolades in life, a selected list is in the following. * 1974:

Marcel Benoist Prize The Marcel Benoist Prize, offered by the Marcel Benoist Foundation, is a monetary prize that has been offered annually since 1920 to a scientist of Swiss nationality or residency who has made the most useful scientific discovery. Emphasis is p ...

* 1979: Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Microscopical Society The Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) is a learned society for the promotion of microscopy. It was founded in 1839 as the Microscopical Society of London making it the oldest organisation of its kind in the world. In 1866, the society gained its ...

* 1979:

Felix Fleischner Felix G. Fleischner (July 29, 1893 in Vienna – August 1969) was an Austrian-American radiologist from Boston. The Fleischner Society for thoracic imaging and diagnosis is named after him. Biography Felix Fleischner was born in Vienna. He becam ...

Medal * 1981: Foreign Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences * 1982: College Medalist, American College of Chest Physicians * 1985: Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science * 1987:

Anders Retzius Anders Adolph Retzius (13 October 1796 – 18 April 1860), was a Swedish professor of anatomy and a supervisor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Biography Retzius was born in Lund, Sweden, in 1796. He enrolled at Lund University in 1 ...

Gold Medal, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm * 1987: Member of the

Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala The Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskaps-Societeten i Uppsala), is the oldest of the royal academies in Sweden, having been founded in 1710. The society has, by royal decree of 1906, 50 Swedish fellows and 100 foreign. ...

* 1988: H.R. Schinz Medal, Swiss Society of Radiology * 1988: Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science,

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

* 1988: Member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society o ...

* 1989: Member of the

German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

* 1992: Individual member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences * 1993:

Jan Evangelista Purkinje Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

Gold Medal, Prague * 1998: Member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

* 1999: Honorary Doctor of Medicine,

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centur ...

* 1999: Honorary Foreign Member,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

* 2000: Honorary member of the Swiss Academy of Sciences * 2004: Honorary member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences * 2005: Prix La Recherche with Bernard Sapoval & Marcel Filoche, Paris * 2007: Educational Award,

European Respiratory Society The European Respiratory Society, or ERS, is a non-profit organization with offices in Lausanne, Brussels and Sheffield. It was founded in 1990 in the field of respiratory medicine. The organization was formed with the merger of the Societas Euro ...

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weibel, Ewald 1929 births 2019 deaths Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Swiss biologists Fellows of the Royal Microscopical Society University of Zurich alumni Academic staff of the University of Bern Rockefeller University people People from Aargau Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences Columbia University people Swiss anatomists