Professor Paul C. Johnson (1928-2021) was a founding faculty member of the College of Medicine-Tucson and the first head of the Department of Physiology. He earned his doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1955 and served on the faculty of Indiana University from 1956 to 1967. He was recruited to the University of Arizona in 1967 by Merlin K. Duval, MD, the founding dean of the College, and was charged with creating a physiology department and recruiting a world-class faculty.
Paul Johnson, Ph.D.
Dr. Johnson focused his research on the physiology of microcirculation and the mechanisms that regulate blood flow in small vessels. Over the course of his career, he received many awards and honors, including the Microcirculatory Society Eugene M. Landis Award, the American Physiological Society Carl Wiggers Award, and an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Limburg in the Netherlands.
The following history is based on a talk given by Paul C. Johnson, Ph.D. in 1994.
Physiology at the University of Arizona was developed here by faculty trained in physiology programs elsewhere. Its roots may be traced to the development of physiology in other institutions in this country.
Regarding the origins of physiology on this campus, physiology as a discipline has existed here for a long time.
Physiology’s Beginnings at the University of Arizona (1892-1901)
In 1904, physiology disappeared for a time from the curriculum. Only Zoology 1 and 2 were offered, and physiology apparently was encompassed to a degree in these introductory offerings.
Growth of Physiology at the University of Arizona (1902-1964)
In 1964, Merlin K. DuVal, MD, was recruited from the University of Oklahoma to be Dean of the University of Arizona Medical School.
University of Arizona College of Medicine and the Department of Physiology (1964-1994)
Sources:
- Photographs for these pages were taken from the UA yearbook The Desert ,
University of Arizona, 1911, Tucson, AZ
- Career of William Beaumont and the Recognition of his Discovery, Benard I.
Cohen, 1980, Arno Press, NY
- Between Harvard and America - the Educational Leadership of Charles W. Eliot,
Hugh Hawkins, 1972, Oxford University Press, NY
- University of Arizona Historical Calendar/1985, Virginia F. Hodge, Patricia
Paylore and Phyllis Ball (eds.), 1984, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
- And photographs by Dr. P.C. Johnson and H.W. Schechner.