Eugene Lindsay Bishop

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Eugene Lindsay Bishop (1886-1951) was an American physician who served as the Commissioner for the Tennessee State Health Department from 1924-1935 and as the Director of the Health and Safety Department of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) from 1935-1951. He was awarded a Lasker Award in 1950.

Tennessee Valley Authority company

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter on May 18, 1933, to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by the Great Depression. The enterprise was a result of the efforts of Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska. TVA was envisioned not only as a provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and electricity to more quickly modernize the region's economy and society.

The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1945 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by Albert Lasker and his wife Mary Woodard Lasker. The awards are sometimes referred to as "America's Nobels". Lasker Award has gained a reputation for identifying future winners of the Nobel Prize. Eighty-six Lasker laureates have received the Nobel Prize, including 32 in the last two decades. Claire Pomeroy is the current President of the Foundation.

Bishop was born in Nashville, Tennessee to Eugene Edgar Bishop (1861-1889) and Elizabeth Lindsay Crittenden Bishop. He received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University in 1914 and his Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins in 1923. Bishop spent almost the entirety of his career serving as a public health official for the state of Tennessee, but was also a consultant to the federal government and a scientific director and board member of the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation. As commissioner, he took a special interest in the problem of tuberculosis. [1]

Nashville, Tennessee State capital and consolidated city-county in Tennessee, United States

Nashville is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Tennessee. The city is the county seat of Davidson County and is located on the Cumberland River. The city's population ranks 24th in the U.S. According to 2017 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the total consolidated city-county population stood at 691,243. The "balance" population, which excludes semi-independent municipalities within Davidson County, was 667,560 in 2017.

Vanderbilt University Private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Vanderbilt University is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of New York shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million endowment despite having never been to the South. Vanderbilt hoped that his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the Civil War.

Johns Hopkins University Private research university in Baltimore, Maryland

The Johns Hopkins University is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, the university was named for its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur, abolitionist, and philanthropist Johns Hopkins. His $7 million bequest —of which half financed the establishment of Johns Hopkins Hospital—was the largest philanthropic gift in the history of the United States up to that time. Daniel Coit Gilman, who was inaugurated as the institution's first president on February 22, 1876, led the university to revolutionize higher education in the U.S. by integrating teaching and research. Adopting the concept of a graduate school from Germany's ancient Heidelberg University, Johns Hopkins University is considered the first research university in the United States. Over the course of several decades, the university has led all U.S. universities in annual research and development expenditures. In fiscal year 2016, Johns Hopkins spent nearly $2.5 billion on research.

As health director for the TVA, Bishop sought to reduce the threat of malaria along the 10,000 mile shore line of TVA's lakes, and devised a strategy that involved periodically raising and lowering the water level in each lake. For this innovation he was awarded the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service in 1950. Bishop died in 1951, less than a year after receiving the award. [2]

Malaria duele

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases it can cause yellow skin, seizures, coma, or death. Symptoms usually begin ten to fifteen days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. If not properly treated, people may have recurrences of the disease months later. In those who have recently survived an infection, reinfection usually causes milder symptoms. This partial resistance disappears over months to years if the person has no continuing exposure to malaria.

  1. Daniel, Thomas M. Wade Hampton Frost, Pioneer Epidemiologist, 1880-1938 (2004) pp. 181-193
  2. Obituary in the "American Journal of Public Health"

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