Human biology: From a love to profession and back again

In 1937-1939, while working with my right hand as psychologist in the Bata Shoe Co. in Zlin, Moravia, with my left hand I was involved in research on age changes in body dimensions and profited from the interdisciplinary orie ntation of the (Czech) Biotypological Society, of which I was an active mem ber. In 1941 I joined the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene, a research a nd teaching unit in the School of Public Health of the University of Minnes ota. My contributions ranged from philosophy of science through a broadly c onceived physical anthropology, including nutritional anthropometry, to the study of behavior. I did field work both in Yugoslavia and in the United S tates. The research topics included aging, the effects of smoking, and etio logy of coronary heart disease. In the collaborative monograph on The Biolo gy of Human Starvation, I co-authored chapters on body weight, physical app earance and external dimension, body fat, a synthesizing chapter on compart ments of the body, special senses, neuromuscular functions and motor perfor mance, and seven chapters devoted to psychology. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.