iii
TRIBUTE Bengt Saltin. “Don’t be sad it is over – be glad that it happened”
It is with a heavy heart that I write this tribute. Bengt Saltin died Sept 12, 2014, at the age of 79. It is also very humbling and challenging; how does a very average scientist describe properly what this remarkable individual accomplished, his contributions, his awards, and recognitions? Bengt’s son used the quote above from Dr Seuss to summarize the family's feelings. Bengt was a world leader in exercise and metabolic physiology for almost 50 years; some would say “THE” leader. He was also a close personal friend of mine and my professional mentor. This complicated my decision to write a tribute as Editor of Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, but when I consulted the Editorial Board, each of them immediately responded very positively and a number of them also shared memories of Bengt. Bengt graduated from the Karolinska Medical School in 1962. He had also been recruited by Ulf van Euler (1970, Nobel laureate), but because of Bengt’s interest in exercise and sport, he studied with Hohwü Christensen, one of the “three musketeers” (along with Asmussen and Nielsen) from the Krogh–Lindhard laboratory. Bengt completed his doctoral thesis in 1964, joined the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in 1965, and quickly began to publish landmark, classic papers. Together with Hultman and Bergström, he was a key part of many of the early investigations that introduced taking muscle biopsies from humans. Their initial examinations of carbohydrate metabolism are classic. While today we take this knowledge for granted, at the time, this information and the methodology were giant steps forward in human physiology. Bengt conducted a number of important studies at this time with David Costill and Philip Gollnick in various areas of muscle physiology, motor recruitment, and metabolism. Bengt’s broad and deep interests were already apparent as during these early years he also published leading studies on thermoregulation and bed rest (the 1966 Dallas bed rest and training study conducted with Jere Mitchell and Gunnar Blomqvist is a cornerstone for this field). It is difficult to find a text book or a review paper in any of these fields that does not recognize his early publications. Bengt quickly became professor in Stockholm, but moved to take up a professorship at the August Krogh Institute in Copenhagen in Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. 39: iii–iv (2014) dx.doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2014-0415
1973. He began to measure blood flow to the exercising humans, which in turn facilitated direct Fick measures of metabolism and his experimental designs became more and more elaborate. The development of the “single-leg extensor” model together with microdialysis and rapid measures of leg flow produced an abundance of metabolic and cardiovascular knowledge. Although his work in so many aspects of physiology is extremely well acknowledged, Bengt’s fundamental interests were in central and peripheral regulation of the cardiovascular system. This resulted in six expeditions to conduct investigations at altitude in Mexico, the Andes, and Himalayas during his career. He would remain in Denmark for most of his career and was the original director of the Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre from 1994–2003. He eventually retired but in name only and was conducting research and publishing until his death this year. It would be far too involved to list or even refer to his many important publications (more than 500 original papers, reviews, and book chapters); these are reflected by the number and international aspect of his invited lectures (Table 1) and his awards (Table 2). With regard to his publications it is not the number but the quality of each that is so impressive. This high quality is a reflection of his strong desire to always ask important questions in his work and to “aim for the bulls eye” rather than doing long series of small, descriptive studies. Bengt knew and respected the achievements of those who came before him; I have attended many talks during which he would point out that early scientists such as Lindhard or Christensen had already reported a finding that contemporary researchers have now “rediscovered”. Bengt always impressed me as a gentle, caring individual, a gentleman in the true sense. As a high-profiled researcher, he had many professional challenges and some significant conflicts. Even in these situations he would only remark to me how surprised he was at an individual’s behaviour. In our many conversations I never heard him say a demeaning statement about anyone. Contrary to so many other scientists, Bengt was able to truly respect and enjoy the success of other scientists. Not only for their sake but also because he could Published by NRC Research Press
iv
Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. Vol. 39, 2014
Table 1. Partial summary of major lectures given by Dr Saltin.
Table 2. Major honours for Dr Saltin.*
1973
1976 1984 1990 1995
1977 1989 1994 1996 1998 2001 2002 2004 2004 2004 2008 2008 2008 2009
The First Wolfe Lecture, The American College of Sports Medicine The Opening Lecture at the New York Academy of Science on Marathon The Opening Lecture of the First IOC Olympic Conference The A.D. Adolph Inauguration Lecture (Exercise and Environment), The American Physiological Society The Opening Lecture of the IOC Pre-Olympic Conference The Gollnick Tutorial Lecture, The American College of Sports Medicine The August Krogh Lecture, IUPS Congress The A.V. Hill Lecture, ECSS Congress The Ernst Jokl Lecture, ISSCPE Congress, Thessaloniki The Rankin Lecture, University of Wisconsin The Annual Mayo Clinic Lecture The D.B. Dill Lecture, The American College of Sports Medicine The Annual Biology Lecture, University of Zürich The Nutrition Lecture, University of Limburg The Biochemistry of Exercise Award Lecture
see that that is how great science develops — by respectfully learning from others. Bengt loved sport and was a strong cross-country skier, hockey player, and runner as well as an excellent orienteer. He served both the Swedish and International Orienteering societies for two decades. He was a founding father and first president of the European College of Sport Science and was an active member of the World Antidoping Agency and the IOC Science Committee. Bengt had remarkably broad interests beyond science. He collected art, especially modern art, and Scandinavian antiques, loved opera, was extremely knowledgeable about politics in many countries, and was remarkably well read in history, novels, biographies, etc. I and others have been amazed by the detail of his knowledge of Canadian literature, for example. Bengt hosted many national and international students and scientists in his laboratory, including a great number of Canadians such as Ray Hermansen, Bert Taylor, Mike Houston, Dave MacLean, Marty Gibala, Rob Boushel, Gabrielle Savard, Marina Mourzakis, Kristi Adamo, and myself. He also hosted many students from less developed countries. I once asked him why he did this when he could have so many outstanding students from highly developed countries. His answer was “I feel that I owe it to them, as we are so fortunate to be in this environment.” I have witnessed many times at conferences when Bengt would be approached by a student or young scientist (usually a large
1999 2000 2000 2001 2002 2002 2002 2005 2005 2006 2008 2009 2010 2011
American College of Sport Medicine: Citation Award Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters American College of Sports Medicine Honor Award The Order of the Dannebrog, 1st degree (Royal Danish Order of Chivalry) The Novo Nordisk Award The Thuréus Prize, the Swedish Medical Society SCIF's Research Prize The August Krogh Award, the Danish Medical Society The IOC Olympic Prize on Sport Sciences The Danish Heart Foundation Research Prize King Carl XVI Gustaf's Gold Medal (size 12, blue ribbon). The PRO SANA Award (Sweden) Honorary Member of The Physiological Society, UK The Danish Rheumatology Association Statue Award The Nutrition Award, University of Limburg The International Biochemistry of Exercise Award The Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professorship, McMaster University, Canada Kulturministeriets Idrætspris (Danish Ministry of Culture Sport Prize)
*Additionally, Dr. Saltin received many honorary degrees, including University of Paris (1990); Athens (1994); Guelph (1997); Aristotle University (1998); Oslo (1998); University of Tartu, Estonia (1998); Jyväskylä, Finland (2000); Concordia University, Montreal (2005); Sundsvall, Sweden (2006); Birmingham, UK (2007); and Lithuania (2009).
number rather than one!). He would never bush them aside but rather patiently interact with them. Last week several members of our Editorial Board related similar stories; when they were early in their career they had met Bengt and he had given generous amounts of time to discussions with them. He listened to them and talked about them rather than about himself. Bengt lived a full life, achieving scientific heights that very few of us could even dream of and his career was likely the most remarkable in quality and in duration during my scientific lifetime. His legacy goes well beyond his own science as many who he mentored are leading our scientific community presently. However, his influence is felt far more widely; as exemplified by the memories of those who contacted me last week, he influenced so many young scientists not only by giving them his time and attention, but also by illustrating that one can and should have interests in global issues and in all aspects of culture.
Acknowledgements I wish to sincerely thank Dr Robert Boushel and Inge Holm for their assistance in preparing this tribute.
Published by NRC Research Press
Copyright of Applied Physiology, Nutrition & Metabolism is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
TRIBUTE Bengt Saltin. “Don’t be sad it is over – be glad that it happened”
It is with a heavy heart that I write this tribute. Bengt Saltin died Sept 12, 2014, at the age of 79. It is also very humbling and challenging; how does a very average scientist describe properly what this remarkable individual accomplished, his contributions, his awards, and recognitions? Bengt’s son used the quote above from Dr Seuss to summarize the family's feelings. Bengt was a world leader in exercise and metabolic physiology for almost 50 years; some would say “THE” leader. He was also a close personal friend of mine and my professional mentor. This complicated my decision to write a tribute as Editor of Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, but when I consulted the Editorial Board, each of them immediately responded very positively and a number of them also shared memories of Bengt. Bengt graduated from the Karolinska Medical School in 1962. He had also been recruited by Ulf van Euler (1970, Nobel laureate), but because of Bengt’s interest in exercise and sport, he studied with Hohwü Christensen, one of the “three musketeers” (along with Asmussen and Nielsen) from the Krogh–Lindhard laboratory. Bengt completed his doctoral thesis in 1964, joined the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in 1965, and quickly began to publish landmark, classic papers. Together with Hultman and Bergström, he was a key part of many of the early investigations that introduced taking muscle biopsies from humans. Their initial examinations of carbohydrate metabolism are classic. While today we take this knowledge for granted, at the time, this information and the methodology were giant steps forward in human physiology. Bengt conducted a number of important studies at this time with David Costill and Philip Gollnick in various areas of muscle physiology, motor recruitment, and metabolism. Bengt’s broad and deep interests were already apparent as during these early years he also published leading studies on thermoregulation and bed rest (the 1966 Dallas bed rest and training study conducted with Jere Mitchell and Gunnar Blomqvist is a cornerstone for this field). It is difficult to find a text book or a review paper in any of these fields that does not recognize his early publications. Bengt quickly became professor in Stockholm, but moved to take up a professorship at the August Krogh Institute in Copenhagen in Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. 39: iii–iv (2014) dx.doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2014-0415
1973. He began to measure blood flow to the exercising humans, which in turn facilitated direct Fick measures of metabolism and his experimental designs became more and more elaborate. The development of the “single-leg extensor” model together with microdialysis and rapid measures of leg flow produced an abundance of metabolic and cardiovascular knowledge. Although his work in so many aspects of physiology is extremely well acknowledged, Bengt’s fundamental interests were in central and peripheral regulation of the cardiovascular system. This resulted in six expeditions to conduct investigations at altitude in Mexico, the Andes, and Himalayas during his career. He would remain in Denmark for most of his career and was the original director of the Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre from 1994–2003. He eventually retired but in name only and was conducting research and publishing until his death this year. It would be far too involved to list or even refer to his many important publications (more than 500 original papers, reviews, and book chapters); these are reflected by the number and international aspect of his invited lectures (Table 1) and his awards (Table 2). With regard to his publications it is not the number but the quality of each that is so impressive. This high quality is a reflection of his strong desire to always ask important questions in his work and to “aim for the bulls eye” rather than doing long series of small, descriptive studies. Bengt knew and respected the achievements of those who came before him; I have attended many talks during which he would point out that early scientists such as Lindhard or Christensen had already reported a finding that contemporary researchers have now “rediscovered”. Bengt always impressed me as a gentle, caring individual, a gentleman in the true sense. As a high-profiled researcher, he had many professional challenges and some significant conflicts. Even in these situations he would only remark to me how surprised he was at an individual’s behaviour. In our many conversations I never heard him say a demeaning statement about anyone. Contrary to so many other scientists, Bengt was able to truly respect and enjoy the success of other scientists. Not only for their sake but also because he could Published by NRC Research Press
iv
Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab. Vol. 39, 2014
Table 1. Partial summary of major lectures given by Dr Saltin.
Table 2. Major honours for Dr Saltin.*
1973
1976 1984 1990 1995
1977 1989 1994 1996 1998 2001 2002 2004 2004 2004 2008 2008 2008 2009
The First Wolfe Lecture, The American College of Sports Medicine The Opening Lecture at the New York Academy of Science on Marathon The Opening Lecture of the First IOC Olympic Conference The A.D. Adolph Inauguration Lecture (Exercise and Environment), The American Physiological Society The Opening Lecture of the IOC Pre-Olympic Conference The Gollnick Tutorial Lecture, The American College of Sports Medicine The August Krogh Lecture, IUPS Congress The A.V. Hill Lecture, ECSS Congress The Ernst Jokl Lecture, ISSCPE Congress, Thessaloniki The Rankin Lecture, University of Wisconsin The Annual Mayo Clinic Lecture The D.B. Dill Lecture, The American College of Sports Medicine The Annual Biology Lecture, University of Zürich The Nutrition Lecture, University of Limburg The Biochemistry of Exercise Award Lecture
see that that is how great science develops — by respectfully learning from others. Bengt loved sport and was a strong cross-country skier, hockey player, and runner as well as an excellent orienteer. He served both the Swedish and International Orienteering societies for two decades. He was a founding father and first president of the European College of Sport Science and was an active member of the World Antidoping Agency and the IOC Science Committee. Bengt had remarkably broad interests beyond science. He collected art, especially modern art, and Scandinavian antiques, loved opera, was extremely knowledgeable about politics in many countries, and was remarkably well read in history, novels, biographies, etc. I and others have been amazed by the detail of his knowledge of Canadian literature, for example. Bengt hosted many national and international students and scientists in his laboratory, including a great number of Canadians such as Ray Hermansen, Bert Taylor, Mike Houston, Dave MacLean, Marty Gibala, Rob Boushel, Gabrielle Savard, Marina Mourzakis, Kristi Adamo, and myself. He also hosted many students from less developed countries. I once asked him why he did this when he could have so many outstanding students from highly developed countries. His answer was “I feel that I owe it to them, as we are so fortunate to be in this environment.” I have witnessed many times at conferences when Bengt would be approached by a student or young scientist (usually a large
1999 2000 2000 2001 2002 2002 2002 2005 2005 2006 2008 2009 2010 2011
American College of Sport Medicine: Citation Award Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters American College of Sports Medicine Honor Award The Order of the Dannebrog, 1st degree (Royal Danish Order of Chivalry) The Novo Nordisk Award The Thuréus Prize, the Swedish Medical Society SCIF's Research Prize The August Krogh Award, the Danish Medical Society The IOC Olympic Prize on Sport Sciences The Danish Heart Foundation Research Prize King Carl XVI Gustaf's Gold Medal (size 12, blue ribbon). The PRO SANA Award (Sweden) Honorary Member of The Physiological Society, UK The Danish Rheumatology Association Statue Award The Nutrition Award, University of Limburg The International Biochemistry of Exercise Award The Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professorship, McMaster University, Canada Kulturministeriets Idrætspris (Danish Ministry of Culture Sport Prize)
*Additionally, Dr. Saltin received many honorary degrees, including University of Paris (1990); Athens (1994); Guelph (1997); Aristotle University (1998); Oslo (1998); University of Tartu, Estonia (1998); Jyväskylä, Finland (2000); Concordia University, Montreal (2005); Sundsvall, Sweden (2006); Birmingham, UK (2007); and Lithuania (2009).
number rather than one!). He would never bush them aside but rather patiently interact with them. Last week several members of our Editorial Board related similar stories; when they were early in their career they had met Bengt and he had given generous amounts of time to discussions with them. He listened to them and talked about them rather than about himself. Bengt lived a full life, achieving scientific heights that very few of us could even dream of and his career was likely the most remarkable in quality and in duration during my scientific lifetime. His legacy goes well beyond his own science as many who he mentored are leading our scientific community presently. However, his influence is felt far more widely; as exemplified by the memories of those who contacted me last week, he influenced so many young scientists not only by giving them his time and attention, but also by illustrating that one can and should have interests in global issues and in all aspects of culture.
Acknowledgements I wish to sincerely thank Dr Robert Boushel and Inge Holm for their assistance in preparing this tribute.
Published by NRC Research Press
Copyright of Applied Physiology, Nutrition & Metabolism is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
