Clayton Sam White
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Clayton "Sam" Samuel White (October 11, 1912 – April 26, 2004) was an American
physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
,
nuclear physicist Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...
, and medical researcher best known for developing the field of "blast and shock biology" which explored the effects of blast and shock waves from atomic bombs and other explosions. By bringing together the disciplines of
mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
,
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
,
biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
, and
anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
, White measured the impact of atomic weapons on physical structures and the human body. His studies, many of which were conducted at above-ground nuclear weapons tests at the
Nevada Test Site The Nevada National Security Sites (N2S2 or NNSS), popularized as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a reservation of the United States Department of Energy located in the southeastern portion of Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of ...
, paved the way for precision bombing in support of troops in the field and helped determine how to build adequate bomb shelters and treat blast victims. White studied the biological effects of inhaling small fission particles produced by nuclear tests in a related field. He also examined, with "remarkable prescience," the environmental impact of consumer
aerosol An aerosol is a suspension (chemistry), suspension of fine solid particles or liquid Drop (liquid), droplets in air or another gas. Aerosols can be generated from natural or Human impact on the environment, human causes. The term ''aerosol'' co ...
products on the atmosphere and the health risks of inhaling man-made fibers, diesel exhaust, and other substances. Another area of White's focus was the physiological effect of the high atmosphere on the human body. His research in
aviation medicine Aviation medicine, also called flight medicine or aerospace medicine, is a preventive or occupational medicine in which the patients/subjects are pilots, aircrews, or astronauts. The specialty strives to treat or prevent conditions to which air ...
contributed significantly to the exhaustive physiological and psychological tests conducted in 1959 on the thirty-two candidates competing to become the
Mercury Seven The Mercury Seven were the group of seven astronauts selected to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1. Their names were publicly announced by NASA on April 9, 1959: Scott ...
astronauts, as depicted in the book and film The Right Stuff. White's younger brother, Byron Raymond White, served as an
associate justice of the United States Supreme Court An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, other than the chief justice of the United States. The number of associate justices is eight, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1 ...
from 1962 to 1993 and as Deputy Attorney General under John F. Kennedy.


Early life and education

Clayton Samuel White, known as "Sam," was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1912 to Alpha Albert White, a sheep ranch hand and lumberyard manager, and Maude Elizabeth Burger. He was raised in Wellington, Colorado, then a hamlet of 550 residents. His first job, in grade school, was picking sugar beets for $1.50 a day. In high school, during the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, he and his brother worked the fields after school and on weekends. Though neither of White's parents attended school beyond sixth grade, they instilled the values of education and hard work in their sons. White was a star student and athlete at Wellington High School and valedictorian of his 1930 graduating class. White accepted an academic scholarship to the
University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...
where he majored in psychology with minors in physics and mathematics. He was president of the student body, played basketball, earned all-conference honors as a football end, and graduated
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
in 1934. After graduation, White began pre-med graduate courses while working in a medical lab to earn money for medical school. In 1935, he was awarded a
Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...
and left for England on his first trip outside his home state of Colorado. Until 2006, Sam White and Byron White, a Rhodes pick in 1938, were the only siblings to be selected as Rhodes Scholars. White captained the Oxford lacrosse team and, in 1938, earned a
doctoral degree A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...
in physiology before returning to the University of Colorado to start medical school. As a student, he began publishing scientific papers. One, the effects of
botulism Botulism is a rare and potentially fatal illness caused by botulinum toxin, which is produced by the bacterium ''Clostridium botulinum''. The disease begins with weakness, blurred vision, Fatigue (medical), feeling tired, and trouble speaking. ...
on the nervous system, sparked a lifelong interest in
neurology Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine) , medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous syst ...
.


Military service

The day after the
attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...
, White enlisted in the Navy. He completed medical school in Colorado as a naval reserve officer and, in 1942, was assigned to Alameda Naval Air Station in
Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is built on an informal archipe ...
. Shortly after, he was sent to the Naval Air Station Pensacola in
Pensacola, Florida Pensacola ( ) is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only incorporated city, city in Escambia County, Florida, Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...
, where he enrolled in courses in aviation medicine and flight training at the U.S. Naval School of Aviation Medicine. He was designated a flight surgeon in 1944. At Pensacola, and, later, Patuxent River Naval Air Station in
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
, White specialized in
aviation medicine Aviation medicine, also called flight medicine or aerospace medicine, is a preventive or occupational medicine in which the patients/subjects are pilots, aircrews, or astronauts. The specialty strives to treat or prevent conditions to which air ...
and
respiratory physiology In physiology, respiration is the transport of oxygen from the outside environment to the cells within tissues, and the removal of carbon dioxide in the opposite direction to the environment by a respiratory system. The physiological definition ...
. His groundbreaking work on
oxygen masks An oxygen mask is a mask that provides a method to transfer breathing oxygen gas from a storage tank to the lungs. Oxygen masks may cover only the nose and mouth (oral nasal mask) or the entire face (full-face mask). They may be made of plastic, ...
and liquid oxygen converters attracted the attention of William Randolph "Randy" Lovelace II, a
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
and
Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic () is a Nonprofit organization, private American Academic health science centre, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center focused on integrated health care, healthcare, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science ...
-trained surgeon and highly decorated Air Force pilot who, in World War II, performed daring parachute jumps at high altitudes to test the military's oxygen masks. Lovelace was eager to learn why some masks would freeze up, sometimes causing fatalities, and sought White's help. White discovered that ice formed in the oxygen inlet ports of the masks and specified modifications to alter them. After the war, Lovelace established a medical research foundation at the Lovelace Clinic in
Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...
, New Mexico, and recruited White to head it.


Medical career

In 1947, upon completion of his military service, White moved to Albuquerque as Director of Research at the Lovelace Foundation for Medical Education and Research, which became "world-renowned in terms of research and teaching." Much of White's early work at Lovelace depended on the research apparatus he built himself. To make the equipment for conducting isotope scans of the thyroid, he took a night course in machine tooling at the
University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...
. He bought lead from local junk dealers to construct the apparatus he needed. To create thermostats for his lab, he learned how to blow glass. In 1951, White assembled an international symposium on aviation medicine which became the basis of his book, "Physics and Medicine of the Upper Atmosphere," and demonstrated the need for collaborative work among disciplines. He stressed work across scientific disciplines throughout his career, stating he was "more and more concerned that we in this country and the world have moved way too far in the direction of specialties and not far enough in developing generalists and integrative endeavors." Soon after the symposium, White, a "leader in aviation medicine before the term 'aerospace' was invented" began to consult with aircraft manufacturers and the developing airline industry. Subsequently, Lovelace Medical Center started to provide health care to airline pilots and flight crews. White fought to include female flight attendants – then called "hostesses" – in the Lovelace annual physical program and convinced TWA Airlines to fund it. Before that, hostesses did not have access to the same medical care every other member of the flight crew received. Many of the legendary test pilots at
Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, California, Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County and a souther ...
in California, such as
Scott Crossfield Albert Scott Crossfield (October 2, 1921 – April 19, 2006) was an American United States Navy, naval officer and test pilot. In 1953, he became the first pilot to fly at twice the speed of sound. Crossfield was the first of twelve pilots who fl ...
and
Chuck Yeager Brigadier general (United States), Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager ( , February 13, 1923December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in his ...
, routinely visited Lovelace for medical consultation.In 1958, White and Randy Lovelace assembled the medical team that designed and conducted the exhaustive battery of tests on the thirty-two candidates competing to become Mercury astronauts. The so-called Mercury Seven, the first American astronauts to fly in space, included
John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1 ...
,
Scott Carpenter Malcolm Scott Carpenter (May 1, 1925 – October 10, 2013) was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, astronaut, and aquanaut. He was one of the Mercury Seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury ...
, and
Alan Shepard Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he became the List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astr ...
. The tests at Lovelace were graphically depicted in the book and film, " The Right Stuff." In 1951, the Lovelace Foundation received its first major contract from the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and White launched the work for which he is best known, the field of "blast and shock biology." At the time, most studies of the damage resulting from the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki focused on radiation. But White was drawn to the unexplored devastation caused by the blast and shock wave emanating from the detonations. Observing the post-bombing landscape in Japan, he was fascinated by "how a bomb could flatten one building and leave an adjacent building untouched." He eventually developed mathematical formulae to explain the phenomenon.White, Clayton S.; Bowen, I. Gerald & Richmond, Donald R
Comparative Analysis of Some of the Immediate Environmental Effects at Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Washington, D.C., U.S. Atomic Energy Commission79 p August 1964
Bowen, I. Gerald; Albright, Ray W.; Fletcher, E. Royce & White, Clayton
A Model Designed to Predict the Motion of Objects Translated by Classical Blast Waves
Washington, D.C., U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, 58 p, Jan 1961
As he also noted, the teams that went to Japan to aid the bombing victims spent "more time … picking window glass out of victims than in treating any other injury" including radiation sickness. Under AEC contracts, White and his team studied the effects of rapid environmental pressure variations induced by explosions, the damage caused by energized debris, the biological consequences of inhaling soluble and insoluble fission products, and other effects of high-impact detonations. White documented "whole body displacement," and a wide array of injuries caused by the blast. One of his major discoveries in blast injury was that air emboli in the lung's blood vessels were a significant cause of death.Clayton S Whit
Comparative nuclear effects of biomedical interest
Washington, D.C., U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Division of Biology and Medicine, 79pp, 1960
Much of White's research was conducted at nuclear tests in the desert of the
Nevada Test Site The Nevada National Security Sites (N2S2 or NNSS), popularized as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a reservation of the United States Department of Energy located in the southeastern portion of Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of ...
(an area established in 1951 for the testing of nuclear devices, now called the Nevada National Security Site) and at
Sandia National Laboratories Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force B ...
in Albuquerque where he and his team designed " shock tubes" through which air was forced at high velocity to mimic the effects of atomic blasts. In Nevada, White measured the effectiveness of bomb shelters, often using models and dummies he constructed in a small tool shop in his Albuquerque home garage. From his collected data, in 1957, White and his team produced a "nuclear bomb effects computer," essentially a circular slide rule designed to "calculate 28 different effects, ranging from blast to thermal radiation, initial
nuclear radiation Ionizing (ionising) radiation, including nuclear radiation, consists of subatomic particles or electromagnetic waves that have enough energy per individual photon or particle to ionize atoms or molecules by detaching electrons from them. Some par ...
, early fallout, crater dimensions, and fireball dimensions." The device was updated over the years and included in a sleeve at the back of Samuel Glasstone's book ''The Effects of Nuclear Weapons''. A 1962 edition of the computer is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. It is also displayed at the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The computer appears in
Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...
's 1964 film, '' Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,'' when Peter Sellers, playing the president's demented scientific adviser, pulls the circular device from his jacket pocket to calculate how long people might need to remain in underground bunkers after a nuclear attack. White's work in blast and shock biology led to advances in devising civil defense plans and treating victims of all kinds of blasts, from bombs to chemical explosions to high-impact accidents. He co-authored three major reports on the environmental consequences of nuclear explosions, charting the progression of an explosion with graphs depicting the relationship between the size of the blast and the distance materials traveled from Ground Zero.  Throughout his career, he testified before Congress on nuclear weapons' biological effects, environmental impact, policy, and safety. For nearly three decades, White led wide-ranging, enterprising research at the Lovelace Foundation, first as Director of Research, then as President after William Randolph Lovelace II was killed in a private plane accident in 1965. 2/sup> White established the inter-disciplinary Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute at Lovelace to examine not only the effects of inhaling small fission particles produced by nuclear tests but also the environmental impact of consumer products on the ozone layer, and the health risks of inhaling manmade fibers, diesel exhaust, and other substances.  Within years of its founding, the institute "earned worldwide distinction in the field of inhalation toxicology research." White's other areas of study included aging, memory loss, hypothermia, cosmic rays, drought, pollution of the upper atmosphere, sun damage, health risks of smoking, and the impact of stress on the autonomic nervous system. In 1974, White left Lovelace to become President of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, a non-profit that conducts biomedical research in treating and curing human disease.  In 1979, saying he missed the New Mexico mountains, he returned to Albuquerque to serve as President of the Lovelace Center for the Health Sciences. In addition to authoring more than 125 scientific and technical articles, some of which remain classified, he wrote two books: ''Physics and Medicine of the Upper Atmosphere'' (1952) and ''Blast Biology'' (1960).


Personal life and death

White was married for sixty-three years to Margaret "Peggy" Reeve, whom he met at the University of Colorado. They had three children: daughters Sharon and Meredith, and son Tracy, who grew up in a household where even making popcorn turned into a lesson on the thermodynamics inside a saucepan. For many years, White served as a Rhodes Scholarship Secretary, which included vetting candidates for annual Rhodes consideration. As exacting in this work as in the laboratory, he often declined to forward a candidate, saying that his interviewees "failed to meet the Rhodes standard." White and his brother maintained a deep bond throughout their lives. During Justice White's tenure on the Supreme Court, schoolchildren wrote the justices, asking each to name the person they most admired. Their answers centered on iconic figures: Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Justice White offered a three-word answer: "My brother Sam." In 1977, on the centennial celebration of the founding of the
University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...
, Byron, and Sam White received Alumnus of the Century awards in law and medicine, respectively. Among other awards, Sam White received a U.S. Air Force Exceptional Service Award in 1960 and the National Disaster Preparedness Award in 1962. White died on April 26, 2004, at the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.


Honors

* State of New Mexico Distinguished Public Service award in 1973 * U.S. Air Force Exceptional Service Award in recognition of distinguished patriotic service from 1955 to 1960 * University of Colorado's Alumnus of the Century Award * Dubious Achievement in Thermodynamics of Popping Corn, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation Employee Council.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Clayton Samuel 2004 deaths American medical researchers 1912 births 20th-century American physicians University of Colorado Boulder alumni Aviation medicine