Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Finding Aid for the W.F.H.M. Mommaerts papers, 1943-1991
LSC.0394
LSC.0394
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: W.F.H.M. Mommaerts papers
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.0394
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
1.8 linear feet
(2 boxes and 1 oversize flat box)
Date (bulk): Bulk, 1985-1991
Date (inclusive): 1943-1991
Abstract: Wilfried Francius Henricus Maria (W.F.H.M.) Mommaerts (1917-1994) was a Belgian-born physiologist and Professor of Medicine
and Physiology at the UCLA School of Medicine's Department of Physiology, whose research focused on cardiovascular function
and disease. This collection, spanning 1943-1991 (bulk 1985-1991), focuses largely on the final years of Mommaerts' career
and life, including summaries of research contributions, correspondence, notes, and drafts pertaining to a book manuscript
he co-edited, and a typescript copy of most of the chapters from his unpublished autobiography (1986).
Physical Location: Stored off-site at SRLF. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button
located on this page.
Creator:
Mommaerts, W. F. H. M.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. All requests to access special collections material must be made in
advance using the request button located on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], W.F.H.M. Mommaerts papers (Collection 394). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Edina Weinstein, 1997.
Processed by Russell A. Johnson, 1997. Additional materials processed by Angel Diaz, 2017.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
4233443
Wilfried Franciscus Henricus Maria (W.F.H.M.) Mommaerts was born March 4, 1917, in Broechem, Antwerp, Belgium. He studied
biology at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, earning his BA in 1937 and MA in 1939. His studies focused on general
and comparative physiology, chloroplasts, chemical embryology, and tissue culture. In 1941, he joined the research group of
the future Nobel Laureate, Professor Albert Szent-Györgyi, at the Institute for Medical Chemistry in Szeged, Hungary, and
received his PhD in 1943 from the University of Kolozvar, Hungary (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania).
Following work at a Budapest beer factory (1943-1945) and at the American University of Beirut (1945-1948), Mommaerts immigrated
to the United States in 1948 to continue his research at Duke University School of Medicine (1948-1953) and Western Reserve
University School of Medicine (1953-1956). In 1956, he became Professor of Medicine and Physiology at UCLA, directing the
Los Angeles County Heart Association Research Library and later chairing the School of Medicine's Department of Physiology
from 1966 until his retirement in 1987. Mommaerts' work helped Los Angeles become a recognized center for heart surgery and
science. Through his research on cardiovascular function and disease, Mommaerts changed the emphasis of physiological research
on the heart and helped develop the understanding that the organ functions as a muscle and not merely a pump. Mommaerts died
in Los Angeles on February 2, 1994 at age 76.
The W.F.H.M. papers largely focus on the final years of his career and life, from 1985-1991. A highlight of this collection
is a typescript copy of most of the chapters from Mommaerts' unpublished autobiography written in 1986. The collection also
includes correspondence, notes, and drafts pertaining to the book manuscript he co-edited with Rainer Greger and Hans-Peter
Koepchen,
Human Physiology from Cellular Mechanisms to Integration (1985-1991). The manuscript was published in 1996 after his death. Aside from Mommaerts' curriculum vitae, degree certificates,
and summaries of research contributions, this collection lacks the majority of his teaching, research, lectures, and committee
activities.
This collection has been arranged in the following series.
- Series 1: Biographical files, 1943-1991
- Series 2: UCLA Department of Physiology, 1991
- Series 3: Correspondence, 1987-1991
- Series 4: Human Physiology from Cellular Mechanism to Integration, 1985-1991
- Series 5: Miscellaneous publications, 1989-1991
- Series 6: Autobiography manuscript, 1986
Subjects and Indexing Terms
University of California, Los Angeles--Dept of Physiology--Faculty--Archives..
Cardiovascular system--Physiology--Research.
Physiologists--United States--Archives.