Lawrence Blinks
Lawrence Rogers Blinks was born in Michigan City, Indiana on April 22, 1900. Selecting biology as his major, Blinks attended Kalamazoo College and Stanford University (1919 -1921), before attending Harvard University where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science in 1923 and Master of Arts in 1925. He also completed his PhD at Harvard in 1926 . (1)
His education extended into graduate school at Harvard with an emphasis on general physiology. He started his membrane and algal work with Winthrop R.V. Osterhout and Jacques Loeb at Harvard University (1922–1926). He next worked with Osterhout and Loeb at the Rockefeller Institute (1926–1931) before leaving for Stanford University. Blinks returned to the Hopkins Marine Station to teach a course during the summer quarter of 1931, only to be recruited to a faculty position at Stanford in 1933. He continued to teach and carry out research at the Hopkins Marine Station during his first years on the Palo Alto campus. Blinks’s early membrane work laid the foundation for membrane transport in plant cells and electrical properties of membranes. In 1943, Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, Chancellor of Stanford University, announced that Dr. Lawrence R. Blinks, Professor of Biology, would succeed Walter K. Fisher, as Director of Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station. Blinks would serve in this position for 21 years (1943– 1964). (2)
In 1959, Blinks explained in the Monterey Herald the chain linked fence was being placed in front of Hopkins Marine Station “to protect scientific experiments from the degradations of fishermen, souvenir hunters and litterbugs. Blinks explained the wire mesh fence was being erected “with reluctance” because disturbance of plants and animals in the marine refuge is making the work of Hopkins scientists “more and more difficult.” (3)
As Director of Hopkins, Blinks obtained funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the construction of the Marinostat Building, which was initially designed for long-term culture of marine organisms under varying temperature and light regimes. It was later renamed the Blinks Building and converted into a research laboratory for newly recruited research faculty. In addition to the Marinostat Building, Blinks played an important role bringing an oceanographic program to the Marine Station through the contribution of the Harold Miller family of Portland, Oregon. The Miller family donated the sailing yacht Te Vega which was renovated as a floating laboratory for a major Stanford-National Science Foundation program in oceanography. (4)
During his more than fifty years at Stanford he carried out landmark studies in two completely different areas—electrobiology and photosynthesis— was an important administrator of science, both at Stanford and the national level, and following retirement, he was heavily involved in setting up the biological sciences program at the then fledgling University of California campus at Santa Cruz. (5)
Beyond his position as Professor Emeritus from Stanford University, Blinks was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1955–1989), Vice President of the National Science Foundation (1955), and editor of the Journal of General Physiology (1951– 1957). 6
References
1. Briggs, W., Giese, A. Epel, D. (1989) Memorial Resolution Lawrence R. Blinks (1900-1989)
2. Ibid.
3. Science vs the Public. Monterey Peninsula Herald, Monterey California Friday June 19, 1959 Page 1
4. Briggs, W., Giese, A. Epel, D. (1989) Memorial Resolution Lawrence R. Blinks (1900-1989)
5. Ibid.
6. A tribute to Lawrence Rogers Blinks (1900–1989): light and algae (Anitra Thorhaug AE Graeme Berlyn Photosynth Res (2009) 100:129–141)
Publications:
The relations of temperature to the potassium effect and the bioelectric potential of valonia, Blinks, LR. JOURNAL OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY Volume: 25 Issue: 6 Pages: 905-916 Published: JUL 1942
The electrical capacity of Valonia - Direct current measurement, Blinks, LR; Skow, RK. JOURNAL OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY Volume: 24 Issue: 2 Pages: 247-261 Published: NOV 1940
The effect of oxidants and reductants upon the bioelectric potential of Nitella, Blinks, LR; Pickett, MJ. JOURNAL OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY Volume: 24 Issue: 1 Pages: 33-44 Published: SEP 1940
The cell sap of Hydrodictyon, Blinks, LR; Nielsen, JP. JOURNAL OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY Volume: 23 Issue: 5 Pages: 551-559 Published: 1940
Bioelectric potentials in halicystis VIII. The effects of light, Blinks, LR. JOURNAL OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY Volume: 23 Issue: 4 Published: 1940
Bioelectric potentials in halicystis VII. The effects of low oxygen tension, Blinks, LR; Darsie, ML; Skow, RK. JOURNAL OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY Volume: 22 Issue: 2 Pages: 255-279 Published: NOV 1938
The time course of photosynthesis as shown by the glass electrode, with anomalies in the acidity changes, Blinks, LR; Skow, RK. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Volume: 24 Pages: 413-419 Published: 1938
The time course of photosynthesis as show by a rapid electrode method for oxygen, Blinks, LR; Skow, RK. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Volume: 24 Pages: 420-427 Published: 1938
Effects of oxygen tension and temperature change on the bio-electric potential of halicystis, Blinks, LR; Darsie, ML. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE Volume: 35 Issue: 4 Pages: 522-524 Published: JAN 1937
The effects of current flow on bioelectric potential III. Nitella, Blinks, LR. JOURNAL OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY Volume: 20 Issue: 2 Pages: 229-265 Published: NOV 1936
The effects of current flow on bioelectric potential II. Halicystis, Blinks, LR. JOURNAL OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY Volume: 19 Issue: 5 Pages: 867-898 Published: MAY 1936
The effects of current flow on bioelectric potential I. Valonia, Blinks, LR. JOURNAL OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Pages: 633-672 Published: MAR 1936
The polarization capacity and resistance of Valonia, Blinks, LR. JOURNAL OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Pages: 673-691 Published: MAR 1936
Protoplasmic potentials in halicystis IV. Vacuolar perfusion with artificial sap and sea water, Blinks, LR. JOURNAL OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY Volume: 18 Issue: 3 Pages: 409-420 Published: JAN 1935
Protoplasmic potentials in Halicystis V The reversal of potential by unbalanced NaCl, Blinks, LR; Rhodes, RD; McCallum, GA. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Volume: 21 Pages: 123-125 Published: 1935
Memorial Resolution:
Lawrence R. Blinks 1900 - 1989