University of Buffalo and the Postgraduate Medical School, 1961–1967

Abstract

I had arranged to spend a sabbatical year in the University of Buffalo where Hermann Rahn was the head of the department of physiology. He had been one of the major contributors in the area of pulmonary gas exchange. In the event, the year was not particularly productive in terms of research, but there were several interesting events. One was that I gave a seminar at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and was subsequently offered a position on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. We submitted a large application to the NIH to have a cyclotron installed at the Hospital and remarkably this was funded. However for various reasons I decided not to take up the position, and this astonished many people. But the next 5 years at Hammersmith Hospital turned out to be enormously productive. We concentrated on studying the effects of gravity on the lung, with much of the work being done using an isolated lung preparation. I collaborated with many excellent postdoctoral fellows, and many influential articles were published. However the most important event was my marriage to Penelope in October 1967. Our time together has been extremely happy and I could not have accomplished what I have done without her.