Walter Rudolf Hess (1881–1973)

Excerpt

Walter Rudolf Hess (1881–1973) was born on March 17, 1881, in Frauenfeld (Switzerland) as the son of Gertrud Fischer and college physics professor Clemens Hess. Still a child, Hess was introduced to life sciences, helping his father to collect plants and butterflies and then taking part in his physics experiments. Stimulated by these early scientific experiences, Hess started studying medicine at the University of Lausanne in 1899. He pursued his medical studies at the Universities of Bern, Berlin, Kiel, and Zurich. While observing a vascular anomaly during a class on dissection, Hess speculated about a hemodynamic influence on the arterial system. Encouraged by anatomist Wilhelm Roux (1850–1924), this observation led to his first research article [1]. Hess kept a lifelong interest in hemodynamics. …