Frederik L. Hisaw
Harvard University
August 23, 1891 - December 3, 1972
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Scientific Discipline: Cellular and Developmental Biology Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1947)
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Frederik Hisaw’s research in reproductive endocrinology explained in detail the ovulation cycle in mammals and clarified the workings of ovulation and menstruation. Much of his work was focused on the pituitary gland’s gonadotropic effects on ovaries in guinea pigs. He injected guinea pigs with a pituitary extract causing an enlargement of the ovaries and the growth of the corpus luteum, a temporary structure that forms within an ovary and secretes progesterone. He also discovered and named the hormone relaxin, which is secreted by the corpus luteum during pregnancy.
Hisaw attended the University of Missouri, where he earned a bachelor’s and an MS degree. He then joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi, but left after a year to enlist in the military during World War I. Upon his return he was appointed assistant professor of zoology at Kansas State Agricultural College. He earned his PhD in 1924 from the University of Wisconsin, becoming a full professor in 1929. Hisaw moved to Harvard University in 1935; in 1953 he was appointed to the Fisher Professorship of Natural History.
