Gioacchino Failla (19 July 1891 – 15 December 1961) was an Italian-born American physicist. A pioneer in both

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...

and

radiobiology Radiobiology (also known as radiation biology, and uncommonly as actinobiology) is a field of clinical and basic medical sciences that involves the study of the action of ionizing radiation on living things, especially health effects of radiation. ...

, he was particularly noted for his work on the role of radiation as a cause of cancer and genetic mutation. He was born in

Castelbuono Castelbuono ( Sicilian: ''Castiddubbuonu'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily (southern Italy). Fountain of Venere Ciprea. It is known for its castle from which its name derives, and around which the city devel ...

in the

Province of Palermo The Province of Palermo ( it, provincia di Palermo; Sicilian: ''pruvincia di Palermu'') was a province in the autonomous region of Sicily, a major island in Southern Italy. Its capital was the city of Palermo. On 4 August 2015, it was replaced ...

and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1906. After his retirement from

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 ...

's Center for Radiological Research in 1960, he was appointed Senior Scientist Emeritus in the Radiological Physics Division of the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. He was killed in a car accident near the laboratory at the age of 70.

Professional service

* Committee on Radiation Units, Standardization and Protection * International Commission on Radiation Protection,

ICRP The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) is an independent, international, non-governmental organization, with the mission to protect people, animals, and the environment from the harmful effects of ionising radiation. Its r ...

* National Commission on Radiation Protection, NCRP *

National Defense Research Committee The National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare" in the Un ...

* Radiological Instrument Panel of the

Armed Forces Special Weapons Project The Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP) was a United States military agency responsible for those aspects of nuclear weapons remaining under military control after the Manhattan Project was succeeded by the Atomic Energy Commission on ...

* Advisory Committee on Isotope Distributions * Advisory Committee on Biology and Medicine of the U.S. A.E.C. and the Genetics Committee * National Academy of Sciences Committee on Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation

Honorary memberships

British Institute of Radiology The British Institute of Radiology (BIR) is a radiology society and charity based in London, United Kingdom. It is the oldest institute of its kind in the world, forming on 2 April 1897. History The society can be traced back to two separate i ...

* The James Ewing Society, American Society for the Control of Cancer, now known as the American Cancer Society *

Radiological Society of North America The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) is a non-profit organization and an international society of radiologists, medical physicists and other medical imaging professionals representing 31 radiologic subspecialties from 145 countries a ...

Awards and honors

* Pulitzer Scholarship, awarded to graduates of grammar school that were examined for eligibility to receive one of 10 scholarships offered annually by

Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the '' St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...

. The subjects included in the written examination were grammar, dictation, reading, composition, American history, geography, and arithmetic. * American Cancer Society Annual National Award * Caldwell Medal of the

American Roentgen Ray Society The American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) is the first and oldest radiology society in the United States. It was founded in 1900, in the early days of X-ray and radiation study. Headquartered in Leesburg, Virginia, the society publishes a monthly p ...

* Leonard Prize of the

* James Ewing Society Medal * Gold Medal of the

* 1939, Janeway Medal of the American Radium Society, "Some Aspects of the Biological Action of Ionizing Radiation" * Katherine Berkan Judd Cancer Award from

MSKCC Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute– ...

for cancer research for an investigator who has made major advances toward the control and cure of cancer. * He received an honorary doctorate degree from the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...

Failla Memorial Lecture

* Failla Memorial Lecture presented annually by the Greater New York Chapter of the Health Physics Society and the Radiological Medical Physics Society

Patents

*Stopcock, 1925. *Method and means for applying radium emanation, 1930. *Method and means for treatment by radiations, 1934. *Means for effecting therapeutic implantations, 1935. *Methods and means for testing radiant energy, 1937. *Testing method and apparatus, 1937. *Radiation measuring device, 1953. *Radiation meter, 1954. *Radiation detection device, 1956. *Method of using and manufacturing plastic equivalent to organic materials, 1961. Rose, John Ernest, Failla, Gioacchino, & Francis Rudolph Shonka. (24 October 1961). Method of using and manufacturing plastic equivalent to organic materials. U.S. Patent No. 3,005,794. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Filed: 8 August 1958.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Failla, Gioacchino 1891 births 1961 deaths People from Castelbuono Italian emigrants to the United States American biophysicists Medical physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society 20th-century American inventors Road incident deaths in Illinois Scientists from Sicily