Hubertus Strughold
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| Hubertus Strughold | |
 Hubertus Strughold
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| Born | June 5, 1898 Westphalia, Germany |
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| Died | 1987 |
| Alma mater | Göttingen |
| Known for | Space medicine |
Dr. Hubertus Strughold (15 June 1898 in Westphalia, Germany – 25 September 1986 in San Antonio, Texas) was a German physician and medical researcher. An emigre to the United States after World War II, he is sometimes known as "The Father of Space Medicine"[1]. He was the author of over 180 papers in the field of space medicine. In the 1990s, his wartime association with Nazi medical experimentation became controversial and greatly diminished his reputation.
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[edit] Biography
Strughold was born in Westphalia, Germany and educated at Göttingen where he received a doctorate (Dr. med. et phil.) in 1922. He worked on aviation medicine research from 1927 as Professor of Physiology at Würzburg. He also spent time in the United States. In 1935, he became director of the Research Insitiute for Aviation Medicine (Luftfahrtmedizinisches Forschungsinstitut), Berlin. As the head of Nazi Germany's Air Force Institute for Aviation Medicine, Strughold participated in a 1942 conference that discussed "experiments" on human beings carried out by the institute. The experiments included subjecting inmates of the Dachau concentration camp to torture and death by being immersed in water, placed in air pressure chambers, forced to drink sea water and exposed to freezing temperatures. Strughold later denied approving the experiments and said he learned of them only after World War II. After the war, he was Professor of Physiology and Director, Physiological Institute, University of Heidelberg.
Strughold was brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. He first coined the term "space medicine" in 1948 and was the first and only Professor of Space Medicine at the School of Aviation Medicine (SAM) at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. In 1949 Strughold was made director of the Department of Space Medicine at the SAM (which is now the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM) at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas). He played an important role in developing the pressure suit worn by early American astronauts. He was a co-founder of the Space Medicine Branch of the Aerospace Medical Association in 1950. He was named Chief Scientist, Aerospace Medical Division in 1961. The aeromedical library at Brooks AFB was named after him in 1977, but later renamed because documents from the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal linked Strughold to medical experiments in which inmates from Dachau were tortured and killed.
[edit] Legacy
- Strughold received the Americanism Medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution.
- In 1963, the Space Medicine Branch of the Aerospace Medical Association initiated the "Hubertus Strughold Award", which is given each year for the greatest achievement in space medicine.
- In 1985, the Texas Senate declared June 15, 1985 as "Dr. Hubertus Strughold Day".
- Strughold's picture was removed from the mural "The World History of Medicine" at Ohio State University in 1993.
- Strughold's name was also removed from Brooks Air Force Base's aeromedical library in 1995.
- In May 2006 Dr. Strughold's name was removed from the International Space Hall of Fame by unanimous vote of the New Mexico Museum of Space History's board.[2]
[edit] Notes
- ^ BBC NEWS | Magazine | Project Paperclip: Dark side of the Moon
- ^ Associated Press (2006-05-19). "Former Nazi removed from Space Hall of Fame". MSNBC. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12869190/. Retrieved on 2006-05-19.
[edit] References
- Musgrave, S (2000), "Hubertus Strughold Award.", Aviation, space, and environmental medicine 71 (8): 874, 2000 Aug, PMID 10954370, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10954370
- "Hubertus Strughold Award. Earl H. Wood, M.D., Ph.D.", Aviation, space, and environmental medicine 73 (9): 948–9, 2002, 2002 Sep, PMID 12234052, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12234052
- Campbell, Mark R; Mohler, Stanley R; Harsch, Viktor A; Baisden, Denise (2007), "Hubertus Strughold: the "Father of Space Medicine".", Aviation, space, and environmental medicine 78 (7): 716–9; discussion 719, 2007 Jul, PMID 17679572, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17679572
