Ewald Rudolf Weibel

HonFRMS The Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) is a learned society for the promotion of microscopy. It was founded in 1839 as the Microscopical Society of London making it the oldest organisation of its kind in the world. In 1866, the Society gained it ...

(5 March 1929 – 19 February 2019) was a Swiss anatomist and physiologist and former director of the Institute of Anatomy at the

University of Bern The University of Bern (, , ) is a public university, public research university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a br ...

. He was one of the first scientists to describe the endothelial organelles Weibel–Palade bodies, which are named after him and his Romanian-American colleague George Emil Palade. He was known for his work on the anatomy of gas exchange in lungs on multiple spatial scales using

stereology Stereology is the three-dimensional interpretation of two-dimensional cross sections of materials or tissues. It provides practical techniques for extracting quantitative information about a three-dimensional material from measurements made on two ...

Education and career

Weibel was born in Buchs in the

Aargau Aargau ( ; ), more formally the Canton of Aargau (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capital is Aarau. Aargau is one of the most nort ...

canton of Switzerland. After studying medicine at the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

(state examination 1955, Dr. med. 1956), he spent several years studying in the USA at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in New Haven, as well as at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller University) in New York, most recently as a career Investigator for the Health Research Council of the City of New York. In 1963 he returned to the Anatomical Institute of the University of Zurich as an assistant professor and in 1966 he was appointed full professor and director of the Anatomical Institute at the

until his retirement in 1994. He was Rector of the

from 1984 to 1985. From 1979 until 1996 he was Visiting Agassiz Professor and Associate in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. After his retirement, he was Vice President and Secretary of the Maurice E. Müller Foundation for Orthopedic Surgery until 2000. He was founding president of the Union of Swiss Societies for Experimental Biology (1969-1972), President of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (1996-2000) and President of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (1997-2001). His scientific work covered four main areas: the morphometry of the human lung as the structural basis of the gas exchange function; the development of morphometric and stereological methods; the application of these methods in cell biology to measure the membrane system of the liver cell and the mitochondria in the muscles; integrative studies in comparative physiology, particularly on the question of the optimal structural basis of the organismic functions of the respiratory system, from the lungs to the muscle cells and their mitochondria, based on the hypothesis of symmorphosis. The discovery of the Weibel-Palade bodies in 1962 was an accidental observation. Ewald Weibel was married to the violinist and musicologist Verena Weibel-Trachsler.

Honors and awards

Weibel was awarded numerous awards and accolades in life, a selected list is in the following. * 1974:

Marcel Benoist Prize The Marcel Benoist Prize, offered by the Marcel Benoist Foundation, is a monetary prize that has been offered annually since 1920 to a scientist of Swiss nationality or residency who has made the most useful scientific discovery. Emphasis is pl ...

* 1979: Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Microscopical Society The Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) is a learned society for the promotion of microscopy. It was founded in 1839 as the Microscopical Society of London making it the oldest organisation of its kind in the world. In 1866, the Society gained it ...

* 1979: Felix Fleischner Medal * 1981: Foreign Associate of the

U.S. National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

* 1982: College Medalist,

American College of Chest Physicians The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) is a medical association in the United States consisting of physicians and non-physician specialists in the field of chest medicine, which includes pulmonology, critical care medicine Intensiv ...

* 1985: Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

* 1987:

Anders Retzius Anders Adolph Retzius (13 October 1796 – 18 April 1860), was a Swedish professor of anatomy and a supervisor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Biography Retzius was born in Lund to Anders Jahan Retzius and Ulrika Beata Prytz in ...

Gold Medal, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm * 1987: Member of the

Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala The Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala (), is the oldest of the royal academies in Sweden, having been founded in 1710. The society has, by royal decree of 1906, 50 Swedish fellows and 100 foreign. Early members included Emanuel Swedenborg an ...

* 1988: H.R. Schinz Medal, Swiss Society of Radiology * 1988: Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science,

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

* 1988: Member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

* 1989: Member of the

German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...

* 1992: Individual member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences * 1993:

Jan Evangelista Purkinje Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Num ...

Gold Medal, Prague * 1998: Member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

* 1999: Honorary Doctor of Medicine,

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

* 1999: Honorary Foreign Member,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) 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, and other ...

* 2000: Honorary member of the

Swiss Academy of Sciences The Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) is a Swiss national association founded in 1815.Mission
https://scn ...

* 2004: Honorary member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences * 2005: Prix La Recherche with Bernard Sapoval & Marcel Filoche, Paris * 2007: Educational Award,

European Respiratory Society The European Respiratory Society, or ERS, is a non-profit organization with offices in Lausanne, Brussels and Sheffield. It was founded in 1990 in the field of respiratory medicine. The organization was formed with the merger of the Societas Eur ...

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weibel, Ewald 1929 births 2019 deaths Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Swiss biologists Fellows of the Royal Microscopical Society University of Zurich alumni Academic staff of the University of Bern Rockefeller University people People from Aargau Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences Members of Academia Europaea Columbia University people Swiss anatomists