Berta Vogel Scharrer (December 1, 1906 – July 23, 1995) was an American scientist who helped to found the scientific discipline now known as

neuroendocrinology Neuroendocrinology is the branch of biology (specifically of physiology) which studies the interaction between the nervous system and the endocrine system; i.e. how the brain regulates the hormonal activity in the body. The nervous and endocrine ...

Career

Berta Vogel was born in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, Germany to Karl Phillip Vogel and Johanna Weiss. Her father served as vice-president of the federal court of Bavaria. She received her Ph.D. from the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

. She worked at the university with Professor

Karl von Frisch Karl Ritter von Frisch, (20 November 1886 – 12 June 1982) was a German-Austrian ethologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz. His work centered on investigations o ...

, who shared the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...

in 1973 for his work with bees. Berta Scharrer was forced to emigrate at the onset of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. She arrived with her husband, Ernst Scharrer, in the United States with a total of eight dollars. Despite discrimination against women scientists at the time, she eventually got a professorship at the

Albert Einstein College of Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a research-intensive medical school located in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein operates as an independent degree-granting institution as part of t ...

, the medical school of

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City."About YU
on the Yeshiva Universi ...

, in September 1955. Scharrer also contributed to the field of neuroimmunology, and in the six years prior to her death, published 11 papers, 3 review articles, and served as the associate editor of the journal '' Advances in Immunology''.

Personal life

Berta Vogel married Ernst Scharrer in 1934. They met as graduate students working under von Frisch. The couple fled Germany in 1937 when Ernst accepted a Rockefeller Fellowship at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. They later became U.S. citizens in 1945. Ernst died in 1965 in a swimming accident. The couple had no children.

Death

Scharrer conducted research and taught at Einstein College until her retirement in 1995, five months before her death at age 88.

Honors

Scharrer was elected a Fellow of the

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 ...

in 1967. She earned honorary degrees from various universities, including one from Harvard in 1982, ''"as well as a nomination for a Nobel Prize for her pioneering research in brain chemicals"''. In 1983, she was awarded the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...

by President Reagan, for "demonstrating the central role of neurosecretion and

neuropeptides Neuropeptides are chemical messengers made up of small chains of amino acids that are synthesized and released by neurons. Neuropeptides typically bind to G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to modulate neural activity and other tissues like the ...

in the integration of animal function and development."

Legacy

Scharrer's studies of invertebrates, particularly cockroaches, was so extensive that her name was given to a species of

cockroach Cockroaches (or roaches) are a Paraphyly, paraphyletic group of insects belonging to Blattodea, containing all members of the group except termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are we ...

, known as the

Escala scharrerae ''Escala scharrerae'' is a species of cockroach found in Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous ...

, found in

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologi ...

. Scharrer was awarded the

Schleiden Medal The Schleiden Medal is an award given by the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the National Academy of Germany, to honour outstanding achievements in the field of cellular biology. The award is named after botanist Matthias Jakob Schleiden. Recipie ...

in 1983 and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Bibliography

* ''Neuropeptides and immunoregulation'' (1994) New York City, * ''Functional morphology of neuroendocrine systems : evolutionary and environmental aspects'' (1995) New York City, * ''Handbuch der mikroskopischen Anatomie des Menschen, Bd. 6., Blutgefäss- und Lymphgefässapparat: Innersekretorische Drüsen T. 5., Die Nebenniere. Neurosekretion'' (1954) * ''The structure of the ring-gland (Corpus allatum) in normal and lethal larvae of Drosophila melanogaster'' (1938), Washington, D.C.

References

External links

Tribute to Prof. Berta Scharrer on her 85th birthday
(paid subscription required) * (in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Scharrer, Berta 1906 births 1995 deaths American endocrinologists Women endocrinologists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences National Medal of Science laureates Schleiden Medal recipients German emigrants to the United States Neuroendocrinology People from the Bronx Scientists from Munich Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Yeshiva University faculty Albert Einstein College of Medicine faculty 20th-century American physicians Academic journal editors