Lloyd M. Beidler

Florida State University

January 17, 1922 - August 7, 2003


Scientific Discipline: Systems Neuroscience
Membership Type:
Member (elected 1974)

Lloyd M. Beidler is regarded as the “father of taste physiology.” He pioneered studies in olfactory and gustatory systems biophysics and physiology. He focused on measuring taste receptor potentials using an electronic summator, a tool which quantifies electro-physiological activities of  sensory nerves used for taste. Beidler was one of the first researchers to provide concrete evidence that taste buds continually die and get replaced.
Beidler graduated from Muhlenberg College in 1943 and worked as a physicist in the radiation lab at Johns Hopkins University in 1944. He earned his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1951. In 1950 Beidler began his long career as a professor of physiology at Florida State University, where he remained until his retirement in 1993. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Biophysical Society, and was a Bowditch Lecturer at the American Physiological Society.

Powered by Blackbaud
nonprofit software