George Speri Sperti was born January 17, 1900, in Covington, Kentucky, the son of George and Carolina (Speri) Sperti. He was educated in the public schools of Covington and at the University of Cincinnati from which he received his Electrical Engineering Degree in 1923.
He was awarded the Baldwin Fellowship 1923-1925, the Rockefeller Foundation Travelling Fellowship 1930-1931, the National Research Council Fellowship 1929-1931, and was a Fellow of the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati from 1930-1935.
Dr. Sperti was co-founder of the Basic Science Research Laboratory of the University of Cincinnati and from 1925-1935 served as Research Professor and Director of Research at that institution.
In 1935 he co-founded the Institutum Divi-Thomae of the Athenaeum of Ohio and he has been Research Professor and Director of the Institution and its affiliated laboratories since that time.
Dr. Sperti has contributed to the advancement of science in diversified fields of research. He is the inventor of a K-va and polyphase power-factor meter which has formed the basis of modern power measurements. In the field of illumination, he has developed a line of therapeutic lamps based on his inventions in the field of gaseous discharges and on his work with selective irradiation. Other Sperti developments with selective irradiation include methods for sterilization of food products, endowment of food products with anti-rachitic properties, sterilization of enzymes and the detoxification of vaccines, tenderization of meat and similar products. He has also made fundamental contributions to the field of fluorescent lighting. Dr. Sperti is the discoverer of a new family of biological substances termed Biodynes which regulate cell metabolism. He is responsible for the devlopment of a new wound healing ointment that is being used extensively on major burns. Most of his research career has been devoted to the study of the problem of the cause and cure of cancer and he has made many significant contributions in this field.
He was editor and co-author of the "Bulletin of Basic Science Research" from 1923 to 1935, and is a co-author of "Correlated Investigations in the Basic Sciences" and the "Quantum Theory in Biology." At the present time, he is Editor-in-Chief of "Studies of the Institutum Divi Thomae."
Dr. Sperti is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Mendel Medal Presentation Program, May 16, 1943. Villanova College, Villanova Pennsylvania.
