| Administrative History | 'Maurice Seevers [d. 1977], M.D., Ph.D., who served as chair of the Department of Pharmacology', University of Michigan Medical School, 'from 1942 to 1971... Seevers' expertise in toxicology was known throughout the U.S., and he was consulted frequently by industrial and drug companies'.
'Dr. Seevers added much to the reputation of the University of Michigan by his [international] contributions to the discipline of pharmacology ... His work on opiate addiction ...[caused him to serve]on the World Health Organization Addiction Committee... In the 1960s, [Seevers] was appointed to the President's Commission on Tobacco, [as a result] of his international reputation as an expert in toxicology. It was that commission [which] recommended that cigarettes be labelled as hazardous to human health'.
'In the 1950s Dr. Seevers participated in a visit by several groups of physicians to Japan sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee. Because he saw the need for special training of Japanese scientists and physicians, he began contacts on his own to bring them to Ann Arbor to study or consult. This activity reflected the generous and thoughtful attitude of Dr. Seevers even though Japan was one of [America's] worst "enemies" in World War II. He was awarded the highest decoration of the Japanese emperor. Because of his international reputation and experience, Dr. Seevers also attracted scientists from many other countries, including Mexico, Turkey, India, Scotland, and Switzerland to Michigan for special training. Faculty and students in the Department of Pharmacology benefited from these interchanges.
For some people, Seevers' standing was tarnished by his role in asking the late Mark Nickerson, associate professor of pharmacology who went on to build a strong pharmacology career in Canada, to leave the Medical School during the McCarthy era of the 1950s'.
Cited from Medicine Michigan web page, 'Letters [Lauren A. Woods, Maurice Seevers' Contributions to Pharmacology]', http://www.medicineatmichigan.org/magazine/2000/fall/letters/default.asp (2005).
Also, Seevers was awarded the 1974 Nathan B. Eddy Award.
College on Problems of Drug Dependence web page, 'Previous Award Winners', http://www.cpdd.vcu.edu/Pages/Index/Awards/AwardPreviousByYear.html (2005). |
| Description | Correspondence, dated February - May 1962, talks about the arrangements made for Kosterlitz's visit to Seevers' department, and talks about the visit once Kosterlitz had returned to Aberdeen.
Correspondence relates to the respective work, research and results of Kosterlitz and Seevers, and the sending of scientific samples.
Correspondence, dated May - July 1966, relates to Kosterlitz's and Hanna's intended visit to Seevers in August 1966. Letter, dated 12 September talks about their visit.
Letter, dated 16 January 1967, from Kosterlitz, mentions that Seevers and his wife are contemplating a visit to Aberdeen.
Letter, dated 11 December 1967, from Seevers to Kosterlitz, says that Seevers is scheduled to give the J. Y. Dent Memorial Lecture at King's College, University of London in February 1968. He writes that he will concentrate on 'psychopharmacological aspects of the [drug addiction] problem as revealed in the monkey'. Letter mentions that Seevers and his wife have never been to Scotland because 'a trip planned there in 1938 was cut short by the Munich crisis'. Seevers writes that they might visit Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
Correspondence, dated January - March 1968, relates to the Seevers' intended visit to Aberdeen and mentions that Dr Seever plans to give a lecture to the Faculty on 'The Pharmacological Aspects of Drug Dependence'.
Letter, dated 19 July 1968, from Kosterlitz to Seevers, saying that Kosterlitz has been appointed to the newly - created Chair of Pharmacology from October 1968. He writes, 'Until we have the space for a separate department, I shall share with Alastair Macgregor in the Department of Therapeutics and Pharmacology. Since the space available is small, I have arranged that all the teaching, except for postgraduate students, will be done in the laboratories of the Physiological Department. Our work is progressing well and we are having quite a number of requests from pharmaceutical firms to test new compounds'. Kosterlitz wonders whether Seevers and Dr. Villareal [sic., Dr Julian E. Villarreal] would like to collaborate with Kosterlitz in the testing of compounds. Kosterlitz also asks whether it would be useful to try to organise a 'symposium on the mode of action of narcotic agonists and antagonists' around the time of the International Congress of Pharmacology in Basle in July 1969.
Includes a reply letter from Seevers, dated 15 August 1968.
Subsequent correspondence from 1968, relates to Kosterlitz's attempt to arrange the symposium and Kosterlitz's and Seevers' planned collaboration.
Brief correspondence, dated May 1972, relate to Kosterlitz's intended visit to the U.S.
Draft letter, dated 5 June 1972, from Kosterlitz to Mrs Seevers, thanking her for the party she hosted. Includes a post - script in which Kosterlitz writes that Professor Alistair Macgregor, Professor of Therapeutics at Aberdeen, died a few days ago after a year's illness.
Letter, dated 12 February 1981, to Kosterlitz from Henry H. Swain, Professor and Acting Chairman, Department of Pharmacology, University of Michigan, relating to the M.H. Seevers International Fellowship in Pharmacology. Includes a copy of a brief report made by the first Seevers Fellow, Dr. Jesus A. Garcia - Sevilla. Letter invites Kosterlitz to nominate someone to be the second M.H. Seevers International Fellowship in Pharmacology. Letter says, 'We will use the same procedure which we employed two years ago, inviting nominations from the people like yourself who have come from foreign countries to study in the Pharmacology Department at Ann Arbor'. Letter provides a list of information Kosterlitz has to provide in his nomination. Also, letter is enclosed with a copy of the description of the Department of Pharmacology, as it appears in 'Peterson's Guide'. Letter talks about the selection committee, length of the fellowship and salary.
Includes a short reply letter to Swain, dated 2 March 1981, from Kosterlitz.
There are a number of gaps in the correspondence: between May - December 1962; January 1963 and May 1966; July - September 1966; September 1966 and January 1967; January - December 1967; January - March 1968; March - July 1968; August - November 1968; November 1968 and May 1972, and June 1972 and February 1981. |