Thomas Huckle Huckle Weller

Background

Weller was born and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and then went to the University of Michigan, where his father Carl Vernon Weller was a professor in the Department of Pathology.

Education

Bachelor of Arts Michigan, 1936. Master of Science, 1937. Honorary Doctor of Laws, 1956.

Doctor of Medicine, Harvard, 1940. Doctor of Science, Gustavus Adolphus University, 1975. Doctor of Science, University Massachusetts, 1985.

Doctor of Humane Letters, Lowell University, 1977.

Career

He, John Franklin Enders and Frederick Chapman Robbins were awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1954 for showing how to cultivate poliomyelitis viruses in a test tube, using a combination of human embryonic skin and muscle tissue. In 1936, Weller entered Harvard Medical School, and in 1939 began working under John Franklin Enders, with whom he would later (along with Frederick Chapman Robbins) share the Nobel Prize. lieutenant was Enders who got Weller involved in researching viruses and tissue-culture techniques for determining infectious disease causes.

Weller received his Doctor of Medicine in 1940, and went to work at Children"s Hospital in Boston.

In 1942, during World World War II, he entered the Army Medical Corps and was stationed at the Antilles Medical Laboratory in Puerto Rico, earning the rank of Major and heading the facility"s Departments of Bacteriology, Virology and Parasitology. After the War, he returned to Children"s Hospital in Boston, and it was there in 1947, that he rejoined Enders in the newly created Research Division of Infectious Diseases.

After several leading positions, in July 1954, he was appointed Tropical Public Health Department Head at the Harvard School of Public Health. Weller also served from 1953 to 1959 as Director of the Commission on Parasitic Diseases of the American Armed Forces Epidemiological Board.

In 1954 he was awarded the George Ledlie prize in recognition of his research on rubella, polio and cytomegalovirus(CMV) viruses.

He was also the first to isolate the virus responsible for varicella. In 1945, Weller married Kathleen Fahey.

Achievements

• Thomas Huckle Weller has been listed as a noteworthy Physician, educator by Marquis Who's Who.

Membership

Served to major Medical Corps Army of the United States, 1942-1946. Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences, Royal Society Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (honorary). Member American Medical Association, NAS, Harvey Society, American Epidemiological Society, American Pediatric Society, Association American Physicians, Society Experimental Biology and Medicine, American Association Immunologists., Society Pediatric Research, American Society Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Phi Beta Kappa., Sigma Xi, Alpha Omega Alpha.

Interests

• Gardening, ornithology, photography.

Connections

Married Kathleen R. Fahey, August 18, 1945. Children: Peter Fahey, Nancy Kathleen, Robert Andrew, Janet Louise.

Father:

Carl V. Weller

Mother:

Elsie A. (Huckle) Weller

Spouse:

Kathleen R. Fahey

child:

Robert Andrew Weller

child:

Nancy Kathleen Weller

child:

Peter Fahey Weller

child:

Janet Louise Weller