Frances Anna Hellebrandt (August 26, 1901 – February 2, 1992) was an American physician and an expert on exercise physiology.

Life

She was born on August 26, 1901, in

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. In 1929, she received her BS in Physical Education and a medical degree from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

. Hellebrandt then earned several Anatomy and Physiology faculty positions at the university before she left the United States to study at the Clinic for Sportsmen at

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from 1937–1938 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, now the capital of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. With the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she opted to return to Wisconsin and specialize in physical rehabilitation. By 1943, she was chair of the university's physical therapy department. In 1944, Hellebrandt agreed to head the newly created Baruch Center for Physical Medicine at the VCU

Medical College of Virginia The VCU Medical Center is Virginia Commonwealth University's medical campus located in downtown Richmond, Virginia, in the Court End neighborhood. VCU Medical Center used to be known as the Medical College of Virginia (MCV), which merged with the ...

. Because she brought many of her staffers with her, she was able to establish a new degree program in physical medicine, making the Center the "first such facility in the South." She went on to make the Baruch Center the primary center for rehabilitation for all of Virginia. In 1951, she returned to Chicago to become a professor and chair of physical medicine at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, but her declining health forced her to retire, for the first time, in 1955. However, in 1957, after finding retirement unenjoyable, she took a position as a visiting lecturer and then became a professor at Wisconsin until her second retirement in 1964. At that time, she was named a professor emeritus by the university. Hellebrandt was on the editorial board of the

Journal of Applied Physiology The ''Journal of Applied Physiology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal of physiology published by the American Physiological Society. The journal was established in 1948, and is currently edited by Sue Bodine. According to the ''Journal ...

, and American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Along with Prof. L.E.A. Kelso, she created several research tools and devices still in use today. She served of the Board of Trustees for the Easter Seals Research Foundation, and received the Anderson Award from the American Association of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. In 1944, Hellebrandt was elected as an Associate Fellow in the prestigious American Academy of Physical Education (now known as the National Academy of Kinesiology). Hellebrandt died February 2, 1992, in

Upper Arlington Upper Arlington, often known by its initials U.A., is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, United States, on the northwest side of the Columbus metropolitan area. The Old Arlington neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. ...

, Ohio, at 90.

Woman of achievement

The

Women's Centennial Congress The Women's Centennial Congress was organized by Carrie Chapman Catt and held at the Astor Hotel on November 25-27, 1940, to celebrate a century of female progress. History The date chosen was 100 years after the first World Anti-Slavery Conven ...

organized by

Carrie Chapman Catt Carrie Chapman Catt (; January 9, 1859 Fowler, p. 3 – March 9, 1947) was an American women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. Catt ...

was held in New York City in November 25–27, 1940, to celebrate a century of female progress. To demonstrate their advances, 100 "successful women" were invited to represent their respective fields of study in which they were working in 1940, but that would have been impossible for them in 1840. Hellebrandt's participation was listed in the science category with

Margaret Mead Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Co ...

and

Annie Jump Cannon Annie Jump Cannon (; December 11, 1863 – April 13, 1941) was an American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification. With Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with the creation of ...

, among others. The 100 women chosen were "all American, alive and doing jobs that would have been impossible for a woman to undertake in 1840." In the program, Hellebrandt is mentioned as the "inventor of heelectric ergometer."

Legacy

The Caroline tum Suden/Frances A. Hellebrandt Professional Opportunity Awards, are given by the

American Physiological Society The American Physiological Society is a non-profit professional society for physiologists. It has nearly 10,000 members, most of whom hold doctoral degrees in medicine, physiology or other health professions. Its mission is to support research and ...

to graduate students or post-doctoral fellows who are the first author of an abstract submitted to its Experimental Biology meeting. Hellebrandt's papers are archived at

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virgini ...

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

Selected works

She authored more than 150 scientific papers. * Hellebrandt, F. A. (1938). Standing as a geotropic reflex: the mechanism of the asynchronous rotation of motor units. ''American Journal of Physiology. Legacy Content'', ''121''(2), 471-474. * Hellebrandt, F. A., Tepper, R. H., Braun, G. L., & Elliott, M. C. (1938). The location of the cardinal anatomical orientation planes passing through the center of weight in young adult women. ''American Journal of Physiology. Legacy Content'', ''121''(2), 465-470. * Hellebrandt, F. A. (1940). Exercise. ''Annual Review of Physiology'', ''2''(1), 411-432. * Hellebrandt, F. A., Brogdon, E., & Tepper, R. H. (1940). Posture and its cost. ''American Journal of Physiology. Legacy Content'', ''129''(3), 773-781. * Hellebrandt, F. A., & Franseen, E. B. (1943). Physiological study of the vertical stance of man. ''Physiological Reviews'', ''23''(3), 220-255. * Hellebrandt, F. A., Mueller, E. E., Summers, I. M., Houtz, S. J., Heap, M. F., & Eubank, R. N. (1950). Influence of lower extremity amputation on stance mechanics. ''Journal of the American Medical Association'', ''142''(17), 1353-1356. * Hellebrandt, F. A. (1951). Cross education: ipsilateral and contralateral effects of unimanual training. ''Journal of Applied Physiology'', ''4''(2), 136-144. * Hellebrandt, F. A. (1953). ''Educating Physical Therapists to Meet the Challenge of the Future: Report on Project B 230 (research and Evaluation of Curricula of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation)''. Stipes. * Hellebrandt, F. A., Rarick, G. L., Glassow, R., & Carns, M. L. (1961). PHYSIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF BASIC MOTOR SKILLS1: I. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF JUMPING. ''American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation'', ''40''(1), 14-25.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hellebrandt, Frances Anna 1901 births 1992 deaths People from Chicago American physiologists American women physiologists University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Virginia Commonwealth University faculty