Hans Selye
| János Hugo Bruno "Hans" Selye | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born | January 26, 1907, Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | October 16, 1982, Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Nationality | Hungarian-Canadian |
| Education | MD and PhD in organic chemistry, German University of Prague (1929, 1931); studies at universities of Paris and Rome; Rockefeller Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University |
| Occupation | Physician, endocrinologist, university teacher, psychologist and physiologist |
| Known for | Pioneer of stress research; development of the general adaptation syndrome (GAS); distinction between eustress and distress; "father of stress" |
| Notable works | The Stress of Life, 1956 |
| Website | https://stresscanada.org (Hans Selye Foundation / Canadian Institute of Stress) |
Early life[edit]
Hans Selye (1907-1982) was born in Vienna (then Austria-Hungary). Hans Selye regarded himself as the fourth generation of medical dynasty, but in his books he did not name his ancestors. Based on facts from archives and contemporary literature, the grandfather of Hans Selye was called Schlesinger and he worked in Pruszka (county Trencsén; today: Pruské, county Trenčín, Slovakia) as a district physician.[1]
He was of Hungarian heritage, and two Hungarian-born researchers, Hans Selye and Franz Alexander would later leave lasting marks on psychophysiology and medicine.[2]
Education and career[edit]
The first scientific publication on 'general adaption syndrome', or as we know today 'biologic stress' has been published in Nature in 1936 by the 29-year old Hans Selye. His results in that short publication that contained no references or illustrations, were based on experiments in rats that were exposed to severe insults/stressors, but his idea about a 'nonspecific bodily response' originated from his observations of sick patients whom he had seen as a medical student and young clinician.
Dr. Selye was a great scientist that taught at the Université de Montréal from 1945 to his death in 1982.
Selye was internationally recognized as a world authority in endocrinology, steroid chemistry, experimental surgery, and pathology. He wrote over 1500 original and review articles, singly authored 32 books, and trained 40 PhD students, one of whom (Roger Guillemin) won a Nobel Prize for isolating the hypothalamic releasing factors/hormones.[3]
Notable/unique[edit]
Hans Selye's single author short letter to Nature (1936, 138(3479):32) inspired a huge and still growing wave of medical research. His experiments with rats led to recognition of the "general adaptation syndrome", later renamed by Selye "stress response": the triad of enlarged adrenal glands, lymph node and thymic atrophy, and gastric erosions/ulcers. Because of the major role of glucocorticoids (named by Selye), he performed extensive structure-activity studies in the 1930s-1940s, resulting in the first rational classification of steroid hormones, e.g. corticoids, testoids/androgens, and folliculoids/estrogens.[4]
He thus identified the first molecular mediators of the stress reaction, i.e., steroids released from the adrenal cortex that we call today glucocorticoids, based on his classification and naming of steroids. At the end of a very productive life in experimental medicine, Selye recognized that under both unpleasant and demanding stressors as well as positive, rewarding stimuli adrenal cortex releases the same glucocorticoids and only certain brain structures may distinguish the stimuli under distress and eustress, terms he introduced in 1974.
Nevertheless, Selye did not receive a Nobel Prize, which was awarded in 1950 to the clinician Hench and the two chemists who isolated and synthesized some of the glucocorticoids.
Death[edit]
Dr. Selye taught at the Université de Montréal from 1945 to his death in 1982. He died in Montreal, Canada at age 75.
Published works[edit]
He wrote over 1500 original and review articles, singly authored 32 books. Key publications:
| Work | Year | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Letter to Nature introducing stress concept | 1936 | Selye H. Nature 1936;138(3479):32 |
| The Stress of Life | 1956 | Selye H. The Stress of Life. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. 1956. |
| Stress without Distress | 1974 | In Stress without Distress, first published in 1974, he proposed an ethical code of conduct designed to mitigate personal and social problems. |
| "Forty years of stress research" | 1976 | Selye H. Forty years of stress research: Principal remaining problems and misconceptions. Can Med Assoc J. 1976;115:53–56. |
| Encyclopedia of Endocrinology | 1946 | Selye, Hans. Encyclopedia of Endocrinology,. Montreal,: A. W. T. Franks publishing company. |
