William Cramer (pathologist)

William Cramer FRSE (2 June 1878 – 10 August 1945) was a British pathologist and physiologist, best known for his work with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

William Cramer
Born(1878-06-02)2 June 1878
Died10 August 1945(1945-08-10) (aged 67)
Alma materUniversity of Munich
Known forPathologist at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund
Scientific career
FieldsPathologist
InstitutionsUniversity of Edinburgh
Imperial Cancer Research Fund
Washington University School of Medicine

Biography edit

William Cramer was born in Germany on 2 June 1878.[1] He received his first tertiary education at the University of Munich,[2] and received his Ph.D. at the University of Berlin in 1901.[2] He achieved his D.Sc. at the University of Edinburgh in 1908,[2] during which time he had worked under Swale Vincent.[3] Cramer took the English Conjoint qualification after nine years as a chemical physiology lecturer at Edinburgh.[2] He had worked briefly for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in 1904;[1] he rejoined the organisation in 1914.[2]

In 1907 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer, Francis H A Marshall, Alexander Crum Brown and James Cossar Ewart.[4]

Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Cramer became a naturalised British citizen. He was elected a Foreign Member of the German Society for the Investigation of Cancer.[2] In 1933, he was an official British delegate at the International Cancer Congress in Madrid,[2] and again in 1934 at the International Cancer Research conference in Paris.[2] In 1939, after 25 years with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Cramer relocated to St. Louis, Missouri,[2] where he was head pathologist at the Barnard Skin and Cancer Hospital,[2] and a research associate at Washington University.[2]

Throughout his career, Cramer authored numerous papers on cancer, physiology, and biochemistry.[2] His textbook, Practical Course in Chemical Physiology, had reached its fourth edition by 1920.[2] Cramer belonged to the Physiological Society, the Pathological Society, and the Biochemical Society.[2]

References edit

  1. ^ a b British physiologists 1885-1914: a biographical dictionary, Manchester University Press ND, 1991, p394-5
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "William Cramer, D.Sc., Ph.D., M.R.C.S.," The British Medical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 4417 (Sep. 1, 1945), p. 304
  3. ^ C. Lovatt Evans (1934) "T. Swale Vincent, M.D., D.Sc., Ll.D. Formerly Professor Of Physiology, University Of London," The British Medical Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3810 (Jan. 13, 1934), pp. 83-84
  4. ^ C D Waterston; A Macmillan Shearer (July 2006). Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783–2002: Part 1 (A–J) (PDF). Royal Society of Edinburgh. ISBN 090219884X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2015.