Papers of Ulrich Cameron Luft, 1910-1991. A research physiologist and physician, Luft was an authority in the fields of lung physiology and acclimatization to high altitude. He took part in the 1937 and 1938 German expeditions to Nanga Parbat in the western Himalayas and was chief of the Department of Aviation Physiology at the Aero-Medical Research Institute in Berlin during World War II. He came to the United States in 1947 under the "Operation Paperclip" recruitment program and was the head of the Department of Physiology at the Air Force School of Aviation Medicine, Randolph Field, Texas, and the Lovelace Medical Foundation in New Mexico. He was also active as a project consultant, teacher and clinician. The collection contains material documenting his years in Germany and participation in the Nanga Parbat expeditions, but most of the items date from his arrival in the United States in 1947. Material includes correspondence, much of it related to his research interests; published and unpublished writings by Luft and others from the 1930s through the 1980s; Luft's experimental and reference files containing notes, calculations, graphs and illustrations; photographs of Luft, his colleagues and family; photographs and slides of equipment and people in research settings; and, medical instruments. The papers are arranged in nine series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) WRITINGS BY ULRICH LUFT, 4) EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH MATERIAL, 5) TEACHING MATERIAL, 6) HIGH ALTITUDE EXPEDITIONS, 7) WRITINGS OF OTHERS, 8) MEDICAL APPARATUS, and 9) ORIGINALS OF PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPIES.

The son of a Scottish mother and German father, Ulrich Cameron Luft was born in Berlin on April 25, 1910. He studied medicine at the universities of Freiburg, Munich and Berlin, 1929-1935. After a year as an intern, he was licensed as a physician and in 1937 completed a doctoral thesis on the physiological effects of oxygen deprivation.

19.80 linear feet (38 archives boxes, 11 card files, 1 record carton, 4 oversize folders, and 1 art bin item.)

Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.