Warren Harmon Lewis (June 17, 1870 – July 3, 1964) was an American embryologist and cell biologist. He became professor of physiological anatomy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1913 and from 1919 to 1940, he worked along with his wife Margaret Reed Lewis at the Carnegie Institute of Washington.

Life and work

Lewis was born in Suffield to John Lewis and Adelaide Eunice Harmon. The family moved to Chicago where his father practiced law. Lewis went to Oak Park public schools and also attended the Chicago Manual Training School. He was interested in botany as a boy and collected plants. He joined the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in 1890 where he studied zoology as also French, German and mathematics. He also took an interest in sports and music. In 1894 he obtained a microscope and was influenced by Jacob Reighard to study medicine. In 1896 he joined Johns Hopkins University in the school of medicine. He spent summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole in 1895 and in 1901 he worked with Jacques Loeb, examining the effect of potassium cyanide on sea urchin eggs. In 1901 he worked with Charles R. Bardeen on muscles in Franklin P. Mall's lab. In 1902 he went to Bonn and worked with Moritz Nussbaum on the eye. He returned to Baltimore in 1903 and became an associate in the department of anatomy. In 1904 he became an associate professor. He married Margaret Reed in 1910 and they later researched and published together. After the death of Mall in 1917, the couple was invited by George L. Streeter to the Carnegie Institute's embryology laboratory at Washington. Among their pioneering work was the use of time lapse films to study embryology. They identified the process that they called as

pinocytosis In cellular biology, pinocytosis, otherwise known as fluid endocytosis and bulk-phase pinocytosis, is a mode of endocytosis in which small molecules dissolved in extracellular fluid are brought into the cell through an invagination of the cell me ...

which was differentiated from

phagocytosis Phagocytosis () is the process by which a cell (biology), cell uses its plasma membrane to engulf a large particle (≥ 0.5 μm), giving rise to an internal compartment called the phagosome. It is one type of endocytosis. A cell that performs ph ...

. He was an elected member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, 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 ...

and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. He served as the 21st president of the Association of American Anatomists from 1934 to 1936, and the International Society for Experimental Cytology, and held honorary memberships in the Royal Microscopical Society in London and

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei The (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed"), anglicised as the Lincean Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. Founded in ...

in Rome.

References

External links

*
Warren H. Lewis papers, ca. 1913-1964
at the

Kimberly A. Buettner, "Warren Harmon Lewis (1870-1964)"
''The Embryo Project Encyclopedia.'' 1870 births 1964 deaths American cell biologists American embryologists People from Suffield, Connecticut Johns Hopkins University alumni University of Michigan alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Royal Microscopical Society 20th-century American biologists {{US-biologist-stub