Oct. 3, 1996-Vol28n06: Ewald Weibel, expert on lung function, to present Fifth Annual Hermann Rahn Lecture on Oct. 10

Ewald Weibel, expert on lung function, to present Fifth Annual Hermann Rahn Lecture on Oct. 10

By LOIS BAKER
News Services Editor

Ewald R. Weibel, known worldwide in the field of physiology for his seminal work in lung structure and gas exchange, will present the fifth annual Hermann Rahn Memorial Lecture at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 10, in Butler Auditorium of Farber Hall on the UB South Campus.

His lecture, "Power lines for Muscle Work: Symmorphosis in the Oxygen and Fuel Pathways," is sponsored by the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. It is free and open to the public.

Weibel is professor emeritus at the University of Berne, Switzerland, where he was professor and chair of anatomy for 27 years. He also is vice-chair and secretary of the Maurice E. Muller Foundation.

Weibel's scientific contributions have spanned 40 years. His career began at the University of Zurich, where he received his medical degree in 1955 and served as assistant professor of anatomy. He later was on the faculty of Yale University, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Rockefeller University. He returned to Switzerland in the early 1960s and assumed his position at Berne in 1966.

His work has been concentrated in the area of functional anatomy and, specifically, in lung morphology. He is responsible for major advancements in understanding the relationship between lung structure and function, and has detailed the structural pathway for oxygen from the lung to the mitochondria, the principal site of energy production in the body.

He co-wrote and edited two series of landmark papers on this topic, which were published in special issues of Respiration Physiology, and authored a definitive monograph, "The Pathway for Oxygen," published in 1984 by Harvard University Press.

Weibel is president-elect of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and vice president of the International Union of Physiological Sciences.

His accolades include: foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences; an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh; honorary memberships in numerous academies of sciences in Europe, and the Marcel-Benoist Prize from the Swiss Government.