Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen

Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen
Bodil Mimi Krogh Schmidt-Nielsen, Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, and Barbara Wagner.
Born	6 November 1918 Copenhagen, Denmark
Died	27 April 2015 (aged 96)
Institutions	Duke University Case Western Reserve University MDI Biological Laboratory
Spouse	Knut Schmidt-Nielsen (m. 1939–66) (divorced) Roger G. Chagnon (m. 1968–2003) (his death)

Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen (3 November 1918 – 27 April 2015) was a Danish-born American physiologist, who became the first woman president of the American Physiological Society in 1975.

Biography

Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1918, the youngest of four children of two eminent physiologists, the Nobel Laureate August Krogh and Marie Krogh.^[1] Her father, August Krogh received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1920 for his work on the regulation of muscle oxygen delivery via capillaries and arterioles.

In 1939, Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen married Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, a fellow physiologist, and received doctoral degrees in Dentistry, Odontology, and Physiology from the University of Copenhagen. Knut and Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen became a prominent physiology team at Duke University, but divorced in 1966. Bodil became Department Chair at Case Western Reserve University and later devoted her career full-time to research at MDI Biological Laboratory in Maine.^[2][3]

Schmidt-Nielsen died in April 2015 at the age of 96.^[4]

Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award

The Bodil M. Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award honors a member of the American Physiological Society who is judged to have made outstanding contributions to physiological research and demonstrated dedication and commitment to excellence in training of young physiologists.^[5]

Selected works

• The Solubility of tooth substance in relation to the composition of saliva (Supplementum; v.2, 1946)
• The resourcefulness of nature in physiological adaptation to the environment (Physiologist 1(2): 4-20, 1958)
• August and Marie Krogh: Lives in Science (1995)

References

1. Dantzler, William H. (July 2015). "Obituary Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen (1918-2015) 48th APS President". Retrieved December 17, 2015.
2. Living history of physiology: Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen (Prof. William Dantzler. Department of Physiology College of Medicine. University of Arizona)
3. 48th APS President (1975-1976)Bodil M. Schmidt-Nielsen (American Physiological Society)
4. http://www.the-aps.org/mm/Publications/Journals/Physiologist/Archive/2015-Issues/July-2015-Vol-58No-4/Obituary/Bodil-Schmidt-Nielsen-1918-2015-48th-APS-President
5. Bodil M. Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award (American Physiological Society)