The First Nobel Prize for Integrated Systems Physiology

cine; rather, throughout his lifetime he viewed research in systems physiology as the basic science most likely to contribute to the advancement of the practice of medicine. Therefore, it seems that modern medicine’s prevailing mantra of “bench to bedside” is rooted in Pavlov’s personal philosophy. Some years after his postdoctoral stints in famous laboratories of experimental physiology in Germany, Pavlov was appointed chair of pharmacology at the Military-Medical Academy in St. Petersburg in 1890 and to the chair of physiology at the Imperial Medical Academy in 1895. From that time forward, he succeeded in the progressive development of an extensive research “empire” that changed the world’s view of brain-gut interactions and digestive physiology. Nearing the end of his long and distinguished career, at eighty-six years of age, Pavlov presided over the XVth International Congress of Physiological Sciences in St. Petersburg and Moscow in August 1935. The distinguished American physiologist, Walter B. Cannon, attended the Congress and relates that much of Pavlov’s characteristic alertness and nervous activity was obvious in his actions during the formalities of the Congress. Cannon states that, “in spite of the demands imposed upon Pavlov by the presidency of the Congress, he fulfilled Jackie D. Wood College of Medicine and Public Health, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210 [email protected]