Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Register of the Harvey Milton Patt Papers, 1949-1982
MSS 83-5  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biographical Data
  • Scope Note

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Harvey Milton Patt Papers,
    Date (inclusive): 1949-1982
    Collection number: MSS 83-5
    Creator: Patt, Harvey Milton, 1918-1982
    Extent: 5 cartons
    Repository: University of California, San Francisco. Library. Archives and Special Collections.
    San Francisco, California 94143-0840
    Shelf location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Harvey Milton Patt Papers, MSS 83-5, Archives & Special Collections, UCSF Library & CKM

    Biographical Data

    Harvey Milton Patt was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 2, 1918. He majored in physiology at the University of Chicago, receiving a B.S. in 1939 and a Ph.D. in 1942. During World War II he worked as a civilian on a chemical toxicity program at the University of Chicago, and as a naval officer [lieutenant (J.G.), USNR] on applied physiology problems at the Medical Field Research Laboratory, Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. He was on the staff of the Argonne National Laboratory from 1946 to 1964, where his studies of radiation exposure led to the 1949 discovery that certain chemicals could protect higher organisms from radiation effects. In 1964 he joined the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco, as professor of radiology and physiology and director of the Laboratory of Radiobiology and Environmental Health. That same year he received the Ernest O. Lawrence Award of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission for his work at Argonne.
    In 1950 Dr. Patt served as executive secretary of the National Academy of Sciences Symposium on Radiobiology at Oberlin, where he and a small group of researchers conceived the idea of the Radiation Research Society; he served as its first treasurer, from 1952-1955, and as its president in 1960. Dr. Patt was secretary general of the first International Congress of Radiation Research in 1958. From 1962 until 1970 he held the post of scientific secretary to the Atomic Energy Commission's Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine. He also served on committees of the National Research Council and National Institutes of Health.
    Dr. Patt died on November 4, 1982.

    Scope Note

    Papers include business and personal correspondence, committee correspondence, meeting minutes and reports, photographs and slides, and appointment books.
    Folder listing available.