Fred Mendelsohn (Frederick Arthur Mendelsohn)

Background

Frederick Arthur Mendelsohn was born on June 19, 1942, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to Oscar Adolf Mendelsohn and Edna Millward (Smale) Mendelsohn. Melbourne was Australia's principal centre of medical education and biomedical research, anchored by the University of Melbourne and its affiliated teaching hospitals.

Mendelsohn married Carole Ann Ferguson in 1967; they had two children, Benjamin and David, and divorced in 1978. He married Jeannette Milgrom in 1980; that marriage ended in divorce in 2008, and they had two children, Natalie and Joshua.

Education

Mendelsohn studied medicine and science at the University of Melbourne, receiving a Bachelor of Science in 1965, a Doctor of Philosophy in 1972, and a Doctor of Medicine in 1973. The University of Melbourne, founded in 1853, was Australia's oldest university and developed a major medical tradition through its affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutes.

His postgraduate training combined clinical medicine with experimental physiology. A National Health and Medical Research Council postgraduate scholarship placed him in the University's Department of Medicine in 1969, while later fellowships took him to Middlesex Hospital Medical School in London and the Physiological Institute of the University of Munich. These institutions connected his Australian medical training with leading British and German traditions in clinical investigation and physiological research.

Career

Mendelsohn began his clinical career as a resident medical officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital from 1966 to 1968. The hospital, founded in the nineteenth century, became one of Victoria's major teaching hospitals and a centre for specialist medicine. In 1969 he returned to the University of Melbourne as a National Health and Medical Research Council postgraduate medical scholar in the Department of Medicine, and in 1971 he held honorary physician appointments at Austin Hospital and the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne.

From 1972 to 1973, Mendelsohn was a Nuffield Foundation Travelling Medical Fellow at Middlesex Hospital Medical School in London. The Nuffield Foundation supported medical education and research in Britain, while Middlesex formed part of London's teaching-hospital system. From 1974 to 1975 he held a National Heart Foundation of Australia overseas medical research fellowship at the Physiological Institute of the University of Munich, extending his work into the international study of cardiovascular physiology.

After returning to Melbourne, Mendelsohn served as a senior physician at Austin Hospital from 1977 and as first assistant in the University of Melbourne's Department of Medicine from 1977 to 1981. He was a visiting scientist in the Endocrinology and Reproduction Research Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, from 1981 to 1982. He then became reader in medicine at the University of Melbourne from 1981 to 1990 and held a personal chair in the Faculty of Medicine from 1990 to 1996.

Mendelsohn's research centred on the chemistry of neural communication, neuropeptides, and the renin-angiotensin system. He pioneered the concept that angiotensin could act locally in tissues and helped map angiotensin AT1 and AT2 receptors in the brain. His findings contributed to modern understanding of the pathophysiology of hypertension, heart failure, and renal disease, and his group's work on the AT4 receptor opened further research into angiotensin-related regulation of learning and memory.

From 1997 to 2009, Mendelsohn was the R. Douglas Wright Professor of Experimental Physiology and Medicine at the University of Melbourne. He directed the Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology and Medicine from 1997 to 2008, guiding its expansion toward a broader emphasis on neuroscience and helping establish it as a major Australian brain-research centre. He later served as Professor Emeritus of the University of Melbourne.

Achievements

• Mendelsohn pioneered research demonstrating that angiotensin acts at local tissue sites and mapped angiotensin AT1 and AT2 receptors in the brain, findings that contributed to understanding hypertension, heart failure, and renal disease.

• As director of the Howard Florey Institute, Mendelsohn broadened the institute's research emphasis toward neuroscience and helped develop it into a major Australian centre for brain research.

• His research group contributed to the identification and study of the AT4 receptor and its relationship to insulin-regulated aminopeptidase, opening further investigation of angiotensin-related mechanisms in learning and memory.

Works

• journal article

  • Induction by glucocorticoids of angiotensin converting enzyme production from bovine endothelial cells in culture and rat lung in vivo

    (Co-authored experimental study examining glucocorticoid i...)

    1982
  • Evidence that the angiotensin IV (AT4) receptor is the enzyme insulin-regulated aminopeptidase

    (Co-authored paper identifying insulin-regulated aminopept...)

    2001
  • Localization and characterization of angiotensin II receptor binding and angiotensin converting enzyme in the human medulla oblongata

    (Co-authored study mapping angiotensin II receptor binding...)

    1988
  • Angiotensin II receptor binding associated with nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons in human basal ganglia

    (Co-authored investigation of angiotensin II receptors ass...)

    1992
  • Organisation and functional role of the brain angiotensin system

    (Co-authored review describing the organization and physio...)

    2002

Views

Mendelsohn's public work connected medical research with concern for human welfare. His later involvement in the Medical Association for Prevention of War and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons reflected a documented commitment to reducing the medical and humanitarian consequences of armed conflict.

Membership

Mendelsohn belonged to professional and scientific organizations spanning medicine, physiology, neuroscience, endocrinology, nephrology, and hypertension research. His memberships connected clinical practice with the specialist societies through which researchers exchanged findings and developed professional networks.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Australian Academy of Science, and he served as President of the Australian Neuroscience Society from 2002 to 2003. He also participated in organizations concerned with medical ethics and nuclear disarmament, including the Medical Association for Prevention of War and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

• Fellow

  Royal Australasian College of Physicians , Australia

  1975

• Fellow

  Australian Academy of Science , Australia

  2003

• President from 2002 to 2003

  Australian Neuroscience Society , Australia

• Endocrine Society , United States

• Society for Neuroscience , United States

• New York Academy of Sciences , United States

• International Society for Hypertension

• Australian Council for High Blood Pressure Research , Australia

• Australian Society of Nephrology , Australia

• Australian Physiological and Pharmaceutical Society , Australia

• Vice-President of the Victorian branch

  Medical Association for Prevention of War , Australia

• Board member

  International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons , Australia

  2009

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Mendelsohn was described by the Florey Institute as a pioneering neuroendocrine researcher and a scientific leader who helped bring Australian neuroscience to international prominence.

Interests

• Nuclear disarmament and the prevention of war

Connections

Mendelsohn was the son of Oscar Adolf Mendelsohn and Edna Millward (Smale) Mendelsohn. He married Carole Ann Ferguson in 1967; their children were Benjamin and David. After their divorce, he married Jeannette Milgrom in 1980; their children were Natalie and Joshua.

His professional connections included the University of Melbourne, Austin Hospital, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Royal Women's Hospital, the Howard Florey Institute, the National Institutes of Health, Middlesex Hospital Medical School, and the University of Munich. His research was conducted with collaborators in neurophysiology, endocrinology, cardiovascular medicine, and renal medicine.

Father:

Oscar Adolf Mendelsohn

Mother:

Edna Millward (Smale) Mendelsohn

Spouse:

Jeannette Milgrom

Married in 1980; the marriage ended in divorce in 2008.

Spouse:

Carole Ann Ferguson

Married in 1967; the marriage ended in divorce in 1978.

child:

Benjamin Mendelsohn

child:

David Mendelsohn

child:

Natalie Mendelsohn

child:

Joshua Mendelsohn

References

• Fred Mendelsohn Australian Academy of Science profile describing Mendelsohn's work on local tissue angiotensin, brain AT1 and AT2 receptors, neuropeptides, and neuroscience.
• A tribute to Emeritus Professor Fred Mendelsohn AO The Florey Institute's tribute documenting Mendelsohn's education, clinical appointments, research career, directorship, and death in 2026.
  2026
• The Florey turns 50 Historical account of the Howard Florey Institute and Mendelsohn's role in directing its development into a major brain-research institute.
  2014
• Mendelsohn, Frederick Oscar Arthur (Fred) Biographical entry documenting Mendelsohn's career positions, fellowships, awards, scientific contributions, and organizational leadership.