Dr. Eugene M. K. Geiling - 1941
Eugene M.K. Geiling Ph.D., M.D. was born on May 13, 1891, in the Orange Free State of South Africa, the son of Alexander W.H. and Theresa (Keller) Geiling. He was educated at the Marist Brothers' College in Uitenhage, Cape.
Province, and received his B.A. degree from the University of South Africa in 1911. As a fellow of the Union of South African Government he attended the University of Illinois, receiving the M.Sc. (1915) and Ph.D. (1917) degrees in animal nutrition and chemistry. Returning to South Africa, he served his government during the first World War as a member of the Food Commission, and later became lecturer in agricultural chemistry at the Agricultural College in Potchefstroom, Transvaal. In 1918-1919 Dr. Geiling was a lecturer in physiological chemistry at the College of Medicine, University of Cape Town. He returned to the United States in 1920 as Seessel fellow at Yale University. In 1921 he became assistant in Pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, from which he received the M.D. degree in 1923.
During the following years at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Geiling rose in rank to associate professor and began the scientific investigations which have made him an outstanding member of his profession. In association with his beloved chief, Dr. John Jacob Abel, he collaborated in such major contributions to scientific knowledge as the crystallization of insulin, purification of albumoses, secretine, and the posterior pituitary hormones. During the same period his independent investigations embraced studies of the physiological effects of insulin and an especially important and fundamental contribution concerned with the relationship between the hormones of the pancreas and pituitary glands. His more recent work has centered around investigation of the pituitary gland and especially its comparative pharmacology and anatomy. These investigations have carried him and his co-workers from whaling expeditions in northwest Canada and the St. Lawrence to marine studies in Florida and the sub-tropics.
In 1936 Dr. Geiling was called to the University of Chicago as the first Professor and Chairman of the newly established Department of Pharmacology.
Dr. Geiling was naturalized as an American citizen on June 15, 1939. For several years he has served as consultant to the United States Food and Drug Administration, and also as a member of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry of the American Medical Association. Since 1939 he has been President of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. He has contributed numerous articles to scientific journals, and is a member of the editorial board of Physiological Reviews, the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. he was Foster Lecturer at the University of Buffalo in 1938, and Paul Reed Rockwood Lecturer at the State University of Iowa in 1940.
Mendel Medal Presentation Program, May 13, 1941. Villanova College, Villanova, Pennsylvania.