PHYSIOLOGY NEWS
JANUARY–MARCH 2021
DR. CLARK BLATTEIS: A TRIBUTE
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY FACULTY Zhongjie Sun, MD, PhD, FAHA Professor and Chair Thomas A. Gerwin Chair of Excellence in Physiology Adebowale Adebiyi, PhD Professor Julio Cordero-Morales, PhD Associate Professor Ioannis Dragatsis, PhD Professor Zheng Fan, PhD Professor Polly Hofmann, PhD Professor Senior Executive Associate Dean, College of Medicine Jonathan H. Jaggar, PhD Maury W. Bronstein Professor Salvatore Mancarella, PhD Associate Professor Elena Parfenova, PhD Professor Kaushik Parthasarathi, PhD Associate Professor Gadiparthi N. Rao, PhD George and Elizabeth Malloy Professor Radhakrishna Rao, PhD Professor Donald B. Thomason, PhD Professor Dean, College of Graduate Health Sciences Gabor J. Tigyi, MD, PhD Van Vleet Professor Valeria Vásquez, PhD Associate Professor Junwang Xu, PhD Associate Professor
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The Department of Physiology is saddened to report the death of one of our most beloved colleagues: Dr. Clark Martin Blatteis, PhD. Dr. Blatteis was born on June 25, 1932, in Berlin, Germany, and died on March 14, 2021 in Memphis. Much of Dr. Blatteis’ childhood was spent during World War II when his family, who were German Jews, escaped Nazi Germany but continually stayed on the run to avoid the advancing Germany army. Dr. Blatteis’ family lived briefly in Brussels, Belgium and in Casablanca, Morocco, Clark Blatteis, 1957 where his family were refugees until the end of World War II. After the war, the Blatteis family were permitted to emigrate to the United States, whereupon Clark enrolled at Rutgers University in New Jersey and received his bachelor’s degree in 1953. Clark subsequently entered school at the University of Iowa where he earned both an MS (1955) and a PhD in Medicine (1957). Dr. Blatteis then served in the US Army as a commissioned officer until 1961, when he earned an NIH postdoctoral fellowship in Lima, Peru to study the effects of altitude on newborns. In 1962, Dr. Blatteis was awarded a second NIH postdoctoral fellowship, this time in Oxford, England, where he analyzed the effects of altitude and cold in combination with neonatal metabolism. It was in England that Dr. Blatteis also began his pioneering work exploring the pathophysiology of fever, including making important contributions on the mechanisms of fever induction. In 1966, Dr. Blatteis accepted a position as associate professor of physiology at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis. Eight years later, he was promoted to full professor and ultimately earned the rank of University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, which he held until his retirement in 2008. In September 2016, Dr. Blatteis celebrated his 50th year of association with the UTHSC, an achievement only held by three other individuals. Over his long and illustrious career, Dr. Blatteis was amazingly productive, having published over 200 original scientific articles and four books, and served on the editorial boards of numerous journals including the American Journal of Physiology. In addition, he also Clark Blatteis, 2019 Research Retreat Continued on next page