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(Circulation Research. 2005;97:607.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

In Memoriam

Silvio Weidmann 1921–2005

Harry Fozzard

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Silvio Weidmann’s death on July 11, 2005, brings to a close a heroic period for cellular cardiac electrophysiology. Silvio was the first to record accurate cardiac transmembrane action potentials and to identify the roles of sodium and potassium currents in excitation, conduction, and repolarization in cardiac cells. From his experiments in the 1950’s has grown the entire field of cardiac electrophysiology. His ideas and their influence on those who entered the field after him set the standard for progress in the last half-century. The field is now a cornerstone of clinical cardiac care.

View larger version (121K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Dr Silvio Weidmann. Photograph courtesy of Ruth Weidmann.

Silvio graduated from the University of Bern Medical School in 1946, after interruptions for service in the Swiss Army. In 1948 he went from Uppsala to Cambridge, England, to work with future Nobel laureate Alan Hodgkin—an experience that set the stage for Silvio’s major contributions. After four years back in Bern, he spent a year at SUNY, Downstate Medical School in 1954, where young Brian Hoffmann was beginning his work. Although initially tempted to stay in New York, he returned to Bern, which became a magnet for many of the young people entering the field. During my first stay there from 1963 to 1964 my colleagues were Mario Vassalle, Harald Reuter, and Hans-Christoph Lüttgau, preceded by Hans Hecht and Edward Carmeliet and followed by Boris Surawicz, Gerhard Giebisch, Earl Wood, Peter Hess, and Robert Weingart (to mention a few). Many who did not work in Bern came to seek . . . [Full Text of this Article]