Bert Lester Vallee
Bert Lester Vallee, who died on May 7, 2010, was an iconoclastic figure. He would rail against the bureaucracy of institutions, especially Harvard, but would contribute substantially to their welfare – as a talented trace-metal biochemist, as an innovative medical educator, as a pioneer in academic-industrial relationships, and as creator of ingenious organizations that promoted biomedical research and collaborative international collegiality. Bert was born on June 1, 1919 to Josef and Rosa Blumenthal in Hemer, Westphalia. He attended the University of Berne where he received a B. Sc. in 1938 concentrating in zoology – later reminiscing frequently on his course in embryology there given by a student of the great developmental biologist Hans Spemann. He came to the United States immediately afterwards, the first, and only, fellow of the International Student Service of the League of Nations. He was assigned, as an advisor, to the brilliant mathematician, Richard Courant, who prepped...