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John Phillips

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Area: biochemistry

Years: 1962-1978

 
 
 

After serving for three years in the Navy during World War II at a military hospital in Oakland, John Phillips enrolled at the University of California-Berkeley on the GI Bill to study biology.  He earned his bachelor's degree in 1949 and a doctorate in microbiology and immunology six years later from Berkeley. (1)

A postdoctoral fellowship from the American Cancer Society brought Phillips to Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station for the first time in 1955. His original research interest was in studying the very earliest evolutionary stages of the immune system by looking at cnidarians, a phylum of marine organisms that includes jellyfish and coral. (2) After a short stint at other institutions, Phillips returned to Hopkins in 1962 when he was appointed as an assistant professor in biology. In 1965, Phillips was named director of the marine station. He held the role until 1972. (3)

In conjunction with other faculty (Blinks and Abbott), John Phillips developed a spring course, Problems in Marine Biology, (175H) for undergraduates at Hopkins. As Director of the facility and professor of biology, a portion of Phillips research at Hopkins was directed to the determination of DDT levels and distribution of DDT in the marine environment. Phillip's research reflected the growing interest at the station in studying problems of man and his environment. Phillips, a biochemist who ran Hopkins from 1965 to 1972 and spent much of his career studying and raising awareness about the issues of marine pollution. (4)

From David Chadwick’s DC's Brief Memories of Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Center back then, etc. we learn the following  of Dr. Phillips.

Dr. John Phillips, director of the Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, used to come to Tassajara as a guest. He'd been instrumental in getting DDT banned and told me of legislators lambasting him with accusations of devious intent when "all I was trying to do was protect the poor pelicans." He and his students continued to test for pollution, finding the average mothers' milk so contaminated that he said they should use formula instead. I asked him what should we do to reverse the course of contaminating the world before we destroy ourselves. He said, "It's already too late." That was in the late sixties….

Dr. Phillips and his wife loved to eat crayfish, touting it as the most savory of the shellfish. I told him I'd gone to the creek by the tracks and caught them as a kid - we called them crawdads. Brought them home and put them in a tub. Our maid Rosa would take them home. I'd never eaten them.

One day I was walking with Suzuki Roshi down toward the pool and we ran into Dr. Phillips and his wife. I introduced them. He proudly showed Suzuki a bucket of crayfish he'd caught. Suzuki looked at the bucket half filled with the crustaceans resembling squirming little lobsters, let out a distressed sigh of sadness, and walked away.

Maybe that's when we started telling guests that the fauna on land and creek at Tassajara were our friends and not to be bothered or eaten. (5)

 

References

1.     Mcnally, Jess (2010) Former Hopkins Marine Station Director John Phillips dead at 84. Stanford Report, April 20, 2010.

2.     Ibid.

3.     Mcnally, Jess (2010) Former Hopkins Marine Station Director John Phillips dead at 84. Stanford Report, April 20, 2010.

4.     Abbott, Donald P.,  Blinks, Lawrence R., Phillips, John H. (1964) An Experiment in Undergraduate Teaching and Research in the Biological Sciences. The Veliger (6) 1-6.

5.     David Chadwick’s DC's Brief Memories of Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Center back then. Retrieved April 9, 2020. http://www.cuke.com/Cucumber%20Project/brief%20memories/dc-brief-memories.html

 

Publications:

QUANTUM CHEMICAL STUDIES OF THE METABOLISM OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC-AMINES AND THE STABILITIES AND ELECTROPHILICITIES OF THEIR ARYLNITRENIUM IONS IN RELATION TO THEIR MUTAGENIC-CARCINOGENIC POTENCIES, LOEW, GH; PHILLIPS, J; PACK, G. CANCER BIOCHEMISTRY BIOPHYSICS Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Pages: 101-110 Published: 1979

QUANTUM CHEMICAL STUDIES OF METABOLISM OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC-HYDROCARBONS - BAY REGION REACTIVITY AS A CRITERION FOR CARCINOGENIC POTENCY, LOEW, GH; PHILLIPS, J; WONG, J; et al. CANCER BIOCHEMISTRY BIOPHYSICS Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Pages: 113-122 Published: 1978

QUANTUM CHEMICAL STUDIES OF METABOLISM OF BENZO(A)PYRENE, LOEW, GH; WONG, J; PHILLIPS, J; et al. CANCER BIOCHEMISTRY BIOPHYSICS Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Pages: 123-130 Published: 1978

Holland, N.S., J.H. Phillips, Jr. and A.C. Giese. 1965 An autoradiographic investigation of the coelomocyte production in the purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus). Biol.Bull., v.128 no.2 pp.259-270

Phillips, John H. 1957 Isolation and assay of the nemtocyst toxin of Metridium senile fimbriatun. Biol.Bull. v.113, no.2:296-301

Phillips, John H. 1956 Isolation of active nematocysts of Metridium senile and their chemical composition. Nature, v.178:932

Memorial Resolution:

 

Stanford Report