Don W. Fawcett
Encyclopedia
Don Wayne Fawcett was a pioneer of electron microscopy
and one of its greatest practitioners for studying the organization of cells
and tissues
. His greatest achievement was his description of the structure of spermatozoa
and the male reproductive system.
, where his father and grandfather had raised purebred
sheep and cattle until his father's poor health forced the family to leave the farm and move to Boston
, where Fawcett's father managed a successful wool business. Fawcett attended high school at the famous Boston Latin School
. Upon graduation, he matriculated at Harvard College
in 1934, followed by Harvard Medical School
in 1938, where he connected with Anatomy
Professor George B. Wislocki. "I stole as much time as I could from my course work to do independent research on projects that included studies on the vascular
bundles of aquatic mammal
s, and the amedullary bones of the Florida manatee
," he recalled.
While in college, Fawcett illustrated a book on athletic bandaging
that had been written by the football team's physician. This may have been his only contribution as an illustrator; his later and more widely popular books were illustrated by Sylvia Collard Keen. In the summers, Fawcett worked on Bailey Island
off the coast of Maine, where he embalmed and prepared small sharks for sale to colleges for comparative anatomy
courses. This early interest in anatomy served him well when he trained in surgery
at Harvard. Fawcett's predominant memory of his clinical training was being on duty in the emergency ward the night of the infamous Cocoanut Grove Nightclub disaster
of 1942, which claimed 492 lives in one of the deadliest fires in American history. "We had been having a quiet evening when, without advance notice, we received 115 seriously burned patients
within an hour and a half. Mobilizing all of the off-duty staff that I could reach, I continued on duty for 30 hours doing all I could to relieve the pain and dress the burns of the victims." He received his M.D. in 1942.
Fawcett served as a battalion surgeon and Captain in the European Theater of World War II, but, before shipping out, he married Dorothy Secrest Fawcett, his wife for 68 years, who survived him. After the war, Fawcett chose for a career in research instead of surgery. He returned to Harvard, where he served as an instructor.
, which emerged as a modern field after the electron microscope became more widely available in the 1940s. He would routinely cut thin sections at home, before venturing in the early morning hours to his lab at Harvard, where he viewed them with the microscope that would do so much to reveal the secrets of form and function. He kept a microtome
at home, and it was rumored that he also had a private collection of diamond knives
to help achieve his unparalleled results.
Tom Pollard
, a student at Harvard during Fawcett's chairmanship, recalls how Fawcett used his skills in the darkroom
to produce spectacular prints of electron micrograph
s to illustrate the key features of each image. He may have been most renowned as the first person to describe and depict in detail human spermatozoa
, and he published extensively on the anatomy of male reproductive cellular anatomy
.
He sought out Keith Porter, another pioneering electron microscopist, at the Rockefeller Institute
. There, with Porter and George E. Palade, Fawcett recalled in 2000 that he, working with his illustrious colleagues, "undertook a project on the fine structure of ciliated
epithelium
that revealed the 9+2 pattern
of microtubule
s in the cilia for the first time in a metazoan."
Fawcett described the early days of electron microscopy as: "For morphologists the decade from 1950 to 1960 held the same anticipation and excitement that attends the opening of a new continent for exploration. The electron microscope revealed marvelous order and functional design in the organization of every tissue and organ that was examined and added significantly to our understanding of our own structure (...)". Fawcett published a collection of his fine-structure micrographs in The Cell, a classic cell biology text that features all the major cell structures,
In 1955 Fawcett assumed the position of chair
of the Department of Anatomy at Cornell Medical School in New York City and established an electron microscope laboratory. He had become what today might be characterized as the quintessential descriptive scientist; later generations of cell biologists and biochemists would build on his seminal work. After four years at Cornell, Fawcett again returned to Harvard as Hersey Professor of Anatomy and Chairman of the Department. The endowment for his chairmanship had been established by Ezekiel Hersey in 1770 with a gift of 1,000 pounds, and, Fawcett recalled, "My salary reflected the size of that endowment."
Fawcett, together with Keith Porter, Montrose Moses, Morgan Harris, Hans Ris, Hewson Swift, and J. Herbert Taylor, founded the American Society for Cell Biology in 1960, and was elected as its first president in 1961. They charged themselves with organizing the inaugural scientific meeting of the embryonic society in Chicago where Fawcett was elected its first president.
In 1976 Fawcett resigned the chairmanship and became Senior Associate Dean for Preclinical Science, a position for which, by his own description, he was ill-suited. After spending some time annually in Africa as examiner in the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Nairobi
, Kenya
, where he indulged his profound love of and talent for animal and nature photography, Fawcett left Boston in 1985 to take the position of senior research scientist and director of electron microscopy at the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases
in Nairobi. There, he worked in parasitology
in a well-equipped laboratory financed by the World Bank
and other international agencies. Its mission was to find methods of controlling two parasitic disease
s, theileriosis
(also known as East Coast Fever) and trypanosomiasis
, which together killed hundreds of thousands of cattle annually in East and Central Africa. Fawcett relished the freedom from administrative duties that he enjoyed there. With just a small German microscope and all the accessories he needed, Fawcett could devote all his energy to studying what he considered an interesting new field. He found that he was able to "add significantly to what was then known about the parasites and their arachnid
and dipteran vectors."
in 1988, because the rural environment suited them and they wanted to be close to family. In 1988, the Fawcett Lecture was established at Harvard Medical School
in Fawcett's honor.
His greatest professional legacy, according to Harvard colleague Dan Goodenough, may have been his talent for identifying and recruiting young talent, including Susumu Ito
, Betty Hay (who succeeded him as Chair of Anatomy at Harvard and later as President of the ASCB), and Jean-Paul Revel, also to become an ASCB president. Fawcett recruited dozens of postdoctoral fellows, many of whom also went on to become leaders of cell biology. He "guided" his protégés by procuring for them modest start-up funds, finding them a lab or bench, and wishing them well. They were left completely free to pursue their own research questions alone or through other relationships they may have developed.
Tom Pollard, the chair of Cell Biology and Anatomy at Johns Hopkins
for many years and now at Yale
, says that Fawcett "changed my life." Pollard describes how, after accepting a neurology residency at University of California, San Francisco
, Fawcett, who had attended a talk that Pollard had given as a medical student, called him and asked him to consider basic science instead. Pollard rerouted back to Harvard, where Fawcett gave him a princely start-up fund of US$500 and left him to follow his own curiosity.
Despite his leadership roles, Fawcett was uncommonly solitary in his work and private in his personal life. Goodenough describes him as "fair, generous, and austere," recounting how Fawcett encouraged his early interest in black-and-white photography at a time when Goodenough was a graduate student and couldn't even dream of purchasing good equipment. Fawcett unhesitatingly lent him his fine cameras, lenses, and darkroom equipment. Yet, Fawcett never failed to greet a young faculty member to Harvard with the admonition that they had not a prayer of being asked to stay on the senior faculty. Similarly, in later years, though Fawcett was clearly devoted to his and Dorothy's four children (Robert, Mary, Dona, and Joseph) his colleagues cannot recall ever meeting them. A contributing factor may have been that Fawcett suffered profoundly from migraine
headaches, which he did not reveal to his colleagues and for which he delayed seeking treatment for many decades—a choice that may have caused him to withdraw for hours of silent endurance—until he finally agreed to seek medical attention.
Fawcett died at his home in Missoula, Montana
on May 7, 2009 at the age of 92.
Electron microscope
An electron microscope is a type of microscope that uses a beam of electrons to illuminate the specimen and produce a magnified image. Electron microscopes have a greater resolving power than a light-powered optical microscope, because electrons have wavelengths about 100,000 times shorter than...
and one of its greatest practitioners for studying the organization of cells
Cell (biology)
The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....
and tissues
Tissue (biology)
Tissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. A tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function. These are called tissues because of their identical functioning...
. His greatest achievement was his description of the structure of spermatozoa
Spermatozoon
A spermatozoon is a motile sperm cell, or moving form of the haploid cell that is the male gamete. A spermatozoon joins an ovum to form a zygote...
and the male reproductive system.
Education
Don Fawcett was born in 1917 on a farm in IowaIowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, where his father and grandfather had raised purebred
Purebred
Purebreds, also called purebreeds, are cultivated varieties or cultivars of an animal species, achieved through the process of selective breeding...
sheep and cattle until his father's poor health forced the family to leave the farm and move to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, where Fawcett's father managed a successful wool business. Fawcett attended high school at the famous Boston Latin School
Boston Latin School
The Boston Latin School is a public exam school founded on April 23, 1635, in Boston, Massachusetts. It is both the first public school and oldest existing school in the United States....
. Upon graduation, he matriculated at Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
in 1934, followed by Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
in 1938, where he connected with Anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
Professor George B. Wislocki. "I stole as much time as I could from my course work to do independent research on projects that included studies on the vascular
Vascular
Vascular in zoology and medicine means "related to blood vessels", which are part of the circulatory system. An organ or tissue that is vascularized is heavily endowed with blood vessels and thus richly supplied with blood....
bundles of aquatic mammal
Aquatic mammal
Aquatic and semi-aquatic mammals are a diverse group of mammals that dwell partly or entirely in bodies of water. They include the various marine mammals who dwell in oceans, as well as various freshwater species, such as the Platypus and the European Otter.-Groups:* Order Sirenia: Sirenians**...
s, and the amedullary bones of the Florida manatee
West Indian Manatee
The West Indian Manatee is a manatee, and the largest surviving member of the aquatic mammal order Sirenia . The West Indian Manatee, Trichechus manatus, is a species distinct from the Amazonian Manatee, T. inunguis, and the West African Manatee, T. senegalensis...
," he recalled.
While in college, Fawcett illustrated a book on athletic bandaging
Bandage
A bandage is a piece of material used either to support a medical device such as a dressing or splint, or on its own to provide support to the body; they can also be used to restrict a part of the body. During heavy bleeding or following a poisonous bite it is important to slow the flow of blood,...
that had been written by the football team's physician. This may have been his only contribution as an illustrator; his later and more widely popular books were illustrated by Sylvia Collard Keen. In the summers, Fawcett worked on Bailey Island
Bailey Island (Maine)
Bailey Island is an island in Casco Bay, and a part of the town of Harpswell, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the island had a year-round population of 400.-History:...
off the coast of Maine, where he embalmed and prepared small sharks for sale to colleges for comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy
Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny .-Description:...
courses. This early interest in anatomy served him well when he trained in surgery
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
at Harvard. Fawcett's predominant memory of his clinical training was being on duty in the emergency ward the night of the infamous Cocoanut Grove Nightclub disaster
Cocoanut Grove fire
The Cocoanut Grove was Boston's premier nightclub during the post-Prohibition 1930s and 40s. On November 28, 1942, occurred the scene of what remains the deadliest nightclub fire, killing 492 people and injuring hundreds more...
of 1942, which claimed 492 lives in one of the deadliest fires in American history. "We had been having a quiet evening when, without advance notice, we received 115 seriously burned patients
Burn
A burn is an injury to flesh caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, light, radiation, or friction.Burn may also refer to:*Combustion*Burn , type of watercourses so named in Scotland and north-eastern England...
within an hour and a half. Mobilizing all of the off-duty staff that I could reach, I continued on duty for 30 hours doing all I could to relieve the pain and dress the burns of the victims." He received his M.D. in 1942.
Fawcett served as a battalion surgeon and Captain in the European Theater of World War II, but, before shipping out, he married Dorothy Secrest Fawcett, his wife for 68 years, who survived him. After the war, Fawcett chose for a career in research instead of surgery. He returned to Harvard, where he served as an instructor.
Scientific career
Fawcett perfected the art and technology of microscopy in the early days of cell biologyCell biology
Cell biology is a scientific discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level...
, which emerged as a modern field after the electron microscope became more widely available in the 1940s. He would routinely cut thin sections at home, before venturing in the early morning hours to his lab at Harvard, where he viewed them with the microscope that would do so much to reveal the secrets of form and function. He kept a microtome
Microtome
A microtome is a sectioning instrument that allows for the cutting of extremely thin slices of material, known as sections. Microtomes are an important device in microscopy preparation, allowing for the preparation of samples for observation under transmitted light or electron radiation...
at home, and it was rumored that he also had a private collection of diamond knives
Diamond knives
A diamond knife is a very sharp knife whose blade is made from diamond. The cost is very high; diamond knives are used for scientific applications where an extremely sharp and long-lasting edge is essential.-Diamond knives for ultramicrotomy:...
to help achieve his unparalleled results.
Tom Pollard
Thomas D. Pollard
Thomas Dean Pollard is a prominent educator, cell biologist and biophysicist whose research focuses on understanding cell motility through the study of actin filaments and myosin motors...
, a student at Harvard during Fawcett's chairmanship, recalls how Fawcett used his skills in the darkroom
Darkroom
A darkroom is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light sensitive photographic materials, including photographic film and photographic paper. Darkrooms have been created and used since the inception of photography in the early 19th century...
to produce spectacular prints of electron micrograph
Micrograph
A micrograph or photomicrograph is a photograph or digital image taken through a microscope or similar device to show a magnified image of an item.Micrographs are widely used in all fields of microscopy.-Photomicrograph:...
s to illustrate the key features of each image. He may have been most renowned as the first person to describe and depict in detail human spermatozoa
Spermatozoon
A spermatozoon is a motile sperm cell, or moving form of the haploid cell that is the male gamete. A spermatozoon joins an ovum to form a zygote...
, and he published extensively on the anatomy of male reproductive cellular anatomy
Male reproductive system (human)
The human male reproductive system consists of a number of sex organs that are a part of the human reproductive process...
.
He sought out Keith Porter, another pioneering electron microscopist, at the Rockefeller Institute
Rockefeller University
The Rockefeller University is a private university offering postgraduate and postdoctoral education. It has a strong concentration in the biological sciences. It is also known for producing numerous Nobel laureates...
. There, with Porter and George E. Palade, Fawcett recalled in 2000 that he, working with his illustrious colleagues, "undertook a project on the fine structure of ciliated
Cilium
A cilium is an organelle found in eukaryotic cells. Cilia are slender protuberances that project from the much larger cell body....
epithelium
Epithelium
Epithelium is one of the four basic types of animal tissue, along with connective tissue, muscle tissue and nervous tissue. Epithelial tissues line the cavities and surfaces of structures throughout the body, and also form many glands. Functions of epithelial cells include secretion, selective...
that revealed the 9+2 pattern
Undulipodium
An undulipodium or 9+2 organelle is an intracellular projection of a eukaryotic cell containing a microtubule array. Both eukaryotic flagella and eukaryotic cilia are considered undulipodia....
of microtubule
Microtubule
Microtubules are a component of the cytoskeleton. These rope-like polymers of tubulin can grow as long as 25 micrometers and are highly dynamic. The outer diameter of microtubule is about 25 nm. Microtubules are important for maintaining cell structure, providing platforms for intracellular...
s in the cilia for the first time in a metazoan."
Fawcett described the early days of electron microscopy as: "For morphologists the decade from 1950 to 1960 held the same anticipation and excitement that attends the opening of a new continent for exploration. The electron microscope revealed marvelous order and functional design in the organization of every tissue and organ that was examined and added significantly to our understanding of our own structure (...)". Fawcett published a collection of his fine-structure micrographs in The Cell, a classic cell biology text that features all the major cell structures,
In 1955 Fawcett assumed the position of chair
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of the Department of Anatomy at Cornell Medical School in New York City and established an electron microscope laboratory. He had become what today might be characterized as the quintessential descriptive scientist; later generations of cell biologists and biochemists would build on his seminal work. After four years at Cornell, Fawcett again returned to Harvard as Hersey Professor of Anatomy and Chairman of the Department. The endowment for his chairmanship had been established by Ezekiel Hersey in 1770 with a gift of 1,000 pounds, and, Fawcett recalled, "My salary reflected the size of that endowment."
Fawcett, together with Keith Porter, Montrose Moses, Morgan Harris, Hans Ris, Hewson Swift, and J. Herbert Taylor, founded the American Society for Cell Biology in 1960, and was elected as its first president in 1961. They charged themselves with organizing the inaugural scientific meeting of the embryonic society in Chicago where Fawcett was elected its first president.
In 1976 Fawcett resigned the chairmanship and became Senior Associate Dean for Preclinical Science, a position for which, by his own description, he was ill-suited. After spending some time annually in Africa as examiner in the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Nairobi
University of Nairobi
The University of Nairobi is the largest university in Kenya. Although its history as an educational institution goes back to 1956, it did not become an independent university until 1970 when the University of East Africa was split into three independent universities: Makerere University in...
, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, where he indulged his profound love of and talent for animal and nature photography, Fawcett left Boston in 1985 to take the position of senior research scientist and director of electron microscopy at the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases
International Livestock Research Institute
The International Livestock Research Institute is an international agricultural research institute based in Nairobi, Kenya, and founded in 1994 by the merging of the International Livestock Centre for Africa and the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases...
in Nairobi. There, he worked in parasitology
Parasitology
Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question, but by their way of life...
in a well-equipped laboratory financed by the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
and other international agencies. Its mission was to find methods of controlling two parasitic disease
Parasitic disease
A parasitic disease is an infectious disease caused or transmitted by a parasite. Many parasites do not cause diseases. Parasitic diseases can affect practically all living organisms, including plants and mammals...
s, theileriosis
East Coast fever
-Introduction:East Coast fever is a disease of cattle, sheep and goats caused by the protozoan parasite Theileria parva. The term excludes diseases caused by other Theileria, such as tropical theileriosis , caused by T. annulata, and human theileriosis, caused by T...
(also known as East Coast Fever) and trypanosomiasis
Trypanosomiasis
Trypanosomiasis or trypanosomosis is the name of several diseases in vertebrates caused by parasitic protozoan trypanosomes of the genus Trypanosoma. Approximately 500,000 men, women and children in 36 countries of sub-Saharan Africa suffer from human African trypanosomiasis which is caused by...
, which together killed hundreds of thousands of cattle annually in East and Central Africa. Fawcett relished the freedom from administrative duties that he enjoyed there. With just a small German microscope and all the accessories he needed, Fawcett could devote all his energy to studying what he considered an interesting new field. He found that he was able to "add significantly to what was then known about the parasites and their arachnid
Arachnid
Arachnids are a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals in the subphylum Chelicerata. All arachnids have eight legs, although in some species the front pair may convert to a sensory function. The term is derived from the Greek words , meaning "spider".Almost all extant arachnids are terrestrial...
and dipteran vectors."
Retirement
When Fawcett retired from his work in Africa, he and Dorothy established a new home in MontanaMontana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
in 1988, because the rural environment suited them and they wanted to be close to family. In 1988, the Fawcett Lecture was established at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
in Fawcett's honor.
His greatest professional legacy, according to Harvard colleague Dan Goodenough, may have been his talent for identifying and recruiting young talent, including Susumu Ito
Susumu Ito
Susumu Ito is an American cell biologist and soldier born in Stockton, California.He was in auto mechanic school when he was drafted into the military in 1940, a year before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor...
, Betty Hay (who succeeded him as Chair of Anatomy at Harvard and later as President of the ASCB), and Jean-Paul Revel, also to become an ASCB president. Fawcett recruited dozens of postdoctoral fellows, many of whom also went on to become leaders of cell biology. He "guided" his protégés by procuring for them modest start-up funds, finding them a lab or bench, and wishing them well. They were left completely free to pursue their own research questions alone or through other relationships they may have developed.
Tom Pollard, the chair of Cell Biology and Anatomy at Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
for many years and now at Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, says that Fawcett "changed my life." Pollard describes how, after accepting a neurology residency at University of California, San Francisco
University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco is one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF's medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world...
, Fawcett, who had attended a talk that Pollard had given as a medical student, called him and asked him to consider basic science instead. Pollard rerouted back to Harvard, where Fawcett gave him a princely start-up fund of US$500 and left him to follow his own curiosity.
Despite his leadership roles, Fawcett was uncommonly solitary in his work and private in his personal life. Goodenough describes him as "fair, generous, and austere," recounting how Fawcett encouraged his early interest in black-and-white photography at a time when Goodenough was a graduate student and couldn't even dream of purchasing good equipment. Fawcett unhesitatingly lent him his fine cameras, lenses, and darkroom equipment. Yet, Fawcett never failed to greet a young faculty member to Harvard with the admonition that they had not a prayer of being asked to stay on the senior faculty. Similarly, in later years, though Fawcett was clearly devoted to his and Dorothy's four children (Robert, Mary, Dona, and Joseph) his colleagues cannot recall ever meeting them. A contributing factor may have been that Fawcett suffered profoundly from migraine
Migraine
Migraine is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by moderate to severe headaches, and nausea...
headaches, which he did not reveal to his colleagues and for which he delayed seeking treatment for many decades—a choice that may have caused him to withdraw for hours of silent endurance—until he finally agreed to seek medical attention.
Fawcett died at his home in Missoula, Montana
Missoula, Montana
Missoula is a city located in western Montana and is the county seat of Missoula County. The 2010 Census put the population of Missoula at 66,788 and the population of Missoula County at 109,299. Missoula is the principal city of the Missoula Metropolitan Area...
on May 7, 2009 at the age of 92.