George Bunker Chapman (June 10, 1925 – September 7, 2016) was a professor and a pioneer in research of cell biology and ultrastructure using transmission-light and transmission electron microscopy. He was the first person to see the interior structure of four bacterium species in electron micrographs he produced, described in his Ph.D. dissertation completed in 1953. As a professor, he changed the lives of hundreds of students, colleagues, and others through his mentorship.

Biography

Professor Chapman was born in Bayonne, New Jersey on 10 June 1925 and died in Washington, D.C., on 7 September 2016.[1] In 1943, he graduated from high school and served as a radio man in the United States Naval Reserve in the Pacific Theater in 1944–1945 during World War II. He was an undergraduate from 1946 to 1950 at Princeton University, graduating with high honors. In 1952, he earned his M.S. degree and in 1953, his Ph.D. also at Princeton.[2][3]

Professor Frank H. Johnson supervised his senior thesis entitled “The isolation of a bacteriophage active against a strain of Erwinia carotovora that causes a soft rot of the onion.” George Chapman published his senior-thesis research in the Journal of Bacteriology in 1950 and his Ph.D. research in the same journal in 1953.[4] His Ph.D. thesis concerned Bacillus cereus, B. megatherium, Escherichia coli, and Protobacterium phosphoreum. In 1953–1954, he was a research assistant at Princeton University; 1954–1956, research associate at Princeton (while being employed by RCA); 1956–1960, Assistant Professor of Zoology at Harvard University; 1960–1963, Associate Professor of Anatomy at Cornell University Medical College; 1963–2011, Professor of Biology at Georgetown University; and 2011–2016, Professor Emeritus at Georgetown. Anthony S. Fauci (May 16, 2019) was among his students at Cornell University.

Academic career

He was the Chair of Georgetown University's Department of Biology from 1963 to 1990, where he initiated the Department's graduate program and senior-thesis requirement and increased the size of its faculty. Under his chairmanship, the Department of Biology welcomed female professors including Rita R. Colwell, Ellen J. Henderson, and Diane Wallace Taylor. The Department annually awards the Chapman Medal to senior undergraduates for outstanding research projects.

George Chapman taught cytology and histology and electron microscopy to several thousand pre-dental, premedical, and other students and about 250 medical students and mentored about 24 Ph.D. theses and nine M.S. theses. He performed research on many kinds of cells including those of an alga,[5] bacteria,[6] bees,[7][8] cnidarians,[9][10][11] fish (especially the Channel Catfish),[12][13] a human, a leech, a phytoplasma,[14] protozoa,[15][16][17] a wasp, and a whale, eagerly seeking and working with many scientific collaborators. He published over 100 scientific papers, was a fellow of the American Society for Microbiology and won two Georgetown Bunn Awards for teaching.

References

  1. ↑ "Notable deaths in the Washington area, Obituaries of residents from the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia". The Washington Post. 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  2. ↑ Chapman, G. B.  2015.  The hidden world revealed by the electron microscope.  Unpublished introduction to a book manuscript by G. B. Chapman.
  3. ↑ "George B. Chapman '50 *53". Princeton Alumni Weekly. 2017-01-24. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  4. ↑ Chapman, G. B, and J. Hillier.  1953.  Electron microscopy of ultra-thin sections of bacteria I.  Cellular division in Bacillus cereus.  Journal of Bacteriology 66: 362–373.
  5. ↑ Webster-Smith, N. K., P. Sze, and G. B. Chapman. 1983. The ultrastructure of Helicodictyon planctonium (Chlorophyceae). Phycologia 22: 295–301.
  6. ↑ Chapman, G. B.  1953.  Electron microscopy of ultra-thin sections of bacteria.  Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.  67 pp., 30 plates, Addendum.
  7. ↑ Barrows, E. M., G. B. Chapman, J. E. Zenel, and A. S. Blake.  1986.  Ultrastructure of the Dufour’s gland of the horn-faced bee, Osmia cornifrons.  Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 59: 480–493.
  8. ↑ Chapman, G. B., and E. M. Barrows.  1986.  Ultrastructural features of the cells of Dufour’s gland and associated structures in the carpenter bee, Xylocopa virginica virginica (L.) (Hymenoptera: Anthophoridae).  Annals of the Entomological Society of America 79: 1008–1018.
  9. ↑ Blanco, A. V., and G. B. Chapman.  1987.  Ultrastructural features of the marine dinoflagellate Amphidinium klebsii (Dinophyceae).  Transactions of the American Microscopic Society 106: 201–213.
  10. ↑ Chapman, G. B., and Lewis G. Tilney.  1959.  Cytological studies of the nematocysts of Hydra.  I.  Desmonemes, isorhias, cnidocils, and supporting structures.  Journal of Biophysical and Biochemical Cytology.  5: 69–78.
  11. ↑ Chapman, G. B., and Lewis G. Tilney.  1959.  Cytological studies of the nematocysts of Hydra.  II. The stenoteles.   Journal of Biophysical and Biochemical Cytology.  5: 79–84.
  12. ↑ Chapman, G. B.  1981.  Ultrastructure of the liver of the fingerling rainbow trout Salmo gardneri.  Journal of Fish Biology 18: 553–567.
  13. ↑ Chapman, G. B.  1984.  Ultrastructural aspects of the host-parasite relationship in ichthyophthiriasis.  Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 103: 364–375.
  14. ↑ Chapman, G. B., E. J. Buerkle, E. M. Barrows, R. E. Davis, and E. L. Dally.  2001.  A light and transmission electron microscope study of a black locust tree, Robinia pseudoacacia L., affected with witches'–broom, and classification of the associated phytoplasma. Journal of Phytopathology 149: 589–597.
  15. ↑ Chapman, G. B., and R. C. Kern.  1983.  Ultrastructural aspects of the somatic cortex and contractile vacuole of the ciliate Ichthyophtirius multifiliis.  Journal of Protozoology 30: 481–490.
  16. ↑ Fox, D. P., J. M. Kuzava, and G. B. Chapman.  1987.  The application of propidium iodide staining to the study of the macronucleus and micronuclei in the suctorian Heliophyra sp.  Stain Technology 62: 217–220.
  17. ↑ Taylor, D. W., M. Parra, G. B. Chapman, M. E. Stearns, J. Rener, M. Aikawa, S. Uni, S. B. Aley, L. J. Panton, and R. J. Howard.  1987.  Localization of Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein 1 in the erythrocyte skeleton under knobs.  Molecular Biochemical Parasitology 25: 165–174.
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