Herbert Spencer Gasser

Herbert Spencer Gasser, American physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1963)

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Born: July 5, 1888
Died: May 11, 1963
Zodiac sign: Cancer
Birth year: 1888

About Herbert Spencer Gasser

Herbert Spencer Gasser (July 5, 1888 – May 11, 1963) was an American physiologist, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944 for his work with action potentials in nerve fibers while on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis, awarded jointly with Joseph Erlanger. == Education == Gasser was born in Platteville, Wisconsin, to Herman Gasser and Jane Elisabeth Griswold Gasser. His father was a physician from Dornbirn in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg; his mother was of New England Yankee and German Russian ancestry. == Biography == Gasser attended State Normal School in Platteville, then entered the University of Wisconsin in 1907. Finishing his undergraduate studies in zoology in only two years, he enrolled in the university's medical school in 1909, studying physiology under Joseph Erlanger, and pharmacology under Arthur S. Loevenhart. While still a student, he was named an instructor in pharmacology (1911). Since UW only provided preclinical medical instruction, Gasser transferred to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1913, where he received his medical degree in 1915. He then returned to UW as a pharmacology instructor. In 1916 Gasser moved to the department of physiology at Washington University.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

After four years at that post, he was named the second director of the Rockefeller Institute, following the long tenure of Simon Flexner, who had founded the institute.
As the United States became involved in World War I and the armies began using chemical warfare, Gasser was urged to contribute his knowledge of human physiology to the subject.

The world when Herbert Spencer Gasser was born

Herbert Spencer Gasser was born in 1888. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

Top headlineGreat Blizzard of 1888 paralyzes US East Coast
Technology milestoneKodak box camera — "You press the button, we do the rest"
Defining fadKodak camera craze
World population~1.48B

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderGrover Cleveland
U.S. population57.6M

1888 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Herbert Spencer Gasser's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1888	2026
Population	57.6M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

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