William Francis Ganong, Jr.

Infobox_Person
name = William Francis Ganong, Jr.


imagesize =
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1924|7|6
birth_place = Northampton, Massachusetts United States flagicon|USA
death_date = death date and age|2007|12|23|1924|7|6|mf=y
death_place = Albany, California United States flagicon|USA
resting_place =
residence = San Francisco, California
education = Harvard Medical School
occupation = Scientist, educator, writer
spouse = Ruth Jackson
children = Francis, Susan, Anna, James
parents = William Francis Ganong & Anna Hobbet
religion =

William Francis Ganong, Jr. (July 6, 1924 [ [http://edrv.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/23/4/582] 2002 bio] – December 23, 2007 [ [http://pub.ucsf.edu/newsservices/releases/200801073/ Leading UCSF neuroendocrinologist and medical leader dies] ] ) was a Harvard-educated American physiologist, and was one of the first scientists to trace how the brain controls important internal functions of the body. He was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, the son of renowned botanist and Smith College professor, William Francis Ganong, Sr..

He was a graduate of Harvard Medical School and served with the United States Army during World War II and the Korean War in which he was part of a medical team that established a MASH unit, the Hemorrhagic Fever Center.

A neuroendocrinologist, he was the Lange Professor of Physiology Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco [ [http://www.osu.edu/news/lvl2_news_story.php?id=551] 2003 citation] and served as the 50th president of The American Physiological Society, from 1977 to 1978 [ [http://www.the-aps.org/about/pres/introwfg.htm APS presidents] ] . In the course of his research, he discovered that blood pressure and fluid balance — the salt and water levels in the body — are regulated by hormones from the adrenal gland and the kidney, a key finding for developing ways to treat hypertension. He was also one of the discoverers of Lown-Ganong-Levine syndrome, an electrical abnormality that affects heart rhythm.

William Francis Ganong, Jr. died in Albany, California.

References

* [http://www.the-aps.org/membership/obituaries/william_ganong.htm W.F. Ganong Obituary at The American Physiological Society]