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Dennis Wallace Watson (April 29, 1914, Morpeth, Ontario – December 1, 2008, Saint Paul, Minnesota) was a Canadian-American professor of microbiology. He was the president of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in 1969.^[1]

Biography

Watson graduated in 1934 with a bachelor's degree from the University of Toronto and in 1937 with an M.Sc. from Dalhousie University. During his years as a graduate student at Dalhousie, he was also employed as an assistant by the Biological Board of Canada. From 1937 to 1938 he worked for the Fisheries Research Board of Canada,^[2] where he studied the bacteriology of fish spoilage.^[3]^[4] In 1938 he went to the United States.^[5] In 1941 he graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a Ph.D. in bacteriology.^[2] His Ph.D. thesis is entitled The biological and physical properties of tuberculin constituents.^[6] At the University of Wisconsin, Watson was from 1941 to 1942 a research fellow and a research associate in agricultural biology. In 1942 he was a visiting assistant at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. From 1942 to 1944 he worked in Toronto at the Connaught Laboratories.^[2] From 1944 to 1946, he worked on the development of a typhus vaccine for the U.S. Army in the United States biological weapons program.^[7]^[2]

In 1946 Watson became a naturalized U.S. citizen. From 1946 to 1949 he was an assistant professor in agricultural biology at the University of Wisconsin.^[2] In the department of microbiology of the University of Minnesota Medical School, he became in 1949 an associate professor and then became a full professor, retiring in 1984 as professor emeritus. From 1964 to 1984 he was the head of the department. He served as director of the Minneapolis War Memorial Blood Bank.^[7]

At the University of Minnesota, Watson did research on several diseases, but his discoveries about endotoxin shock might be his most important and fundamental work.^[7] He also did research on host-parasite relationships.^[2]

Watson was elected in 1953 a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.^[8] Upon his retirement in 1984, some of his former students established the Dennis W. Watson Fellowship for University of Minnesota graduate students in microbiology and immunology.^[9]

He married in 1941.^[2] His wife died in 2001. They had a daughter, Catherine, and a son, William. Upon his death in 2008 at the age of 94, Dennis W. Watson was survived by his two children, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.^[7] His son William (who died in 2020) was for many years a professor of world history in the department of social sciences of Colorado Christian University.^[10]

Selected publications

Havens, Walter P.; Watson, Dennis W.; Green, Robert H.; Lavin, George I.; Smadel, Joseph E. (1943). "Complement Fixation with the Neurotropic Viruses". Journal of Experimental Medicine. 77 (2): 139–153. doi:10.1084/jem.77.2.139. PMC 2135322. PMID 19871270.
Cromartie, William J.; Bloom, Walter L.; Watson, Dennis W. (1947). "Studies on Infection with Bacillus anthracis: I. A Histopathological Study of Skin Lesions Produced by B. anthracis in Susceptible and Resistant Animal Species". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 80 (1): 1–13. doi:10.1093/infdis/80.1.1. JSTOR 30089238. PMID 20341537.
Cromartie, William J.; Watson, Dennis W.; Bloom, Walter L.; Heckly, Robert J. (1947). "Studies on Infection with Bacillus anthracis: II. The Immunological and Tissue Damaging Properties of Extracts Prepared from Lesions of B. anthracis Infection". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 80 (1): 14–27. doi:10.1093/infdis/80.1.14. JSTOR 30089239. PMID 20283795.
Watson, Dennis W.; Cromartie, William J.; Bloom, Walter L.; Kegeles, Gerson; Heckly, Robert J. (1947). "Studies on Infection with Bacillus anthracis: III. Chemical and Immunological Properties of the Protective Antigen in Crude Extracts of Skin Lesions of B. anthracis". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 80 (1): 28–40. doi:10.1093/infdis/80.1.28. JSTOR 30089240. PMID 20283797.
Watson, D. W.; Brandly, C. A. (1949). "Virulence and Pathogenicity". Annual Review of Microbiology. 3: 195–220. doi:10.1146/annurev.mi.03.100149.001211.
Skarnes, Robert C.; Watson, Dennis W. (1956). "Characterization of Leukin: An Antibacterial Factor from Leucocytes Active Against Gram-Positive Pathogens". Journal of Experimental Medicine. 104 (6): 829–845. doi:10.1084/jem.104.6.829. PMC 2136653. PMID 13376807.
Skarnes, Robert C.; Watson, Dennis W. (1957). "Antimicrobial Factors of Normal Tissues and Fluids". Bacteriological Reviews. 21 (4): 273–294. doi:10.1128/br.21.4.273-294.1957. PMC 180916. PMID 13488885.
Watson, Dennis W. (1960). "Host-Parasite Factors in Group a Streptococcal Infections". Journal of Experimental Medicine. 111 (2): 255–284. doi:10.1084/jem.111.2.255. PMC 2137249. PMID 13783427.
Watson, Dennis W.; Kim, Yoon Berm (1963). "Modification of Host Responses to Bacterial Endotoxins". Journal of Experimental Medicine. 118 (3): 425–446. doi:10.1084/jem.118.3.425. PMC 2137653. PMID 14078002.
Kim, Yoon Berm; Watson, Dennis W. (1970). "A Purified Group a Streptococcal Pyrogenic Exotoxin". Journal of Experimental Medicine. 131 (3): 611–628. doi:10.1084/jem.131.3.611. PMC 2138823. PMID 4905084.
Galanos, Chris; Rietschel, Ernst T.; Luderitz, Otto; Westphal, Otto; Kim, Yoon B.; Watson, Dennis W. (1972). "Biological Activities of Lipid a Complexed with Bovine-Serum Albumin". European Journal of Biochemistry. 31 (2): 230–233. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1972.tb02524.x. PMID 4567119.
Barsumian, E. L.; Schlievert, P. M.; Watson, D. W. (1978). "Nonspecific and specific immunological mitogenicity by group a streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxins". Infection and Immunity. 22 (3): 681–688. doi:10.1128/iai.22.3.681-688.1978. PMC 422214. PMID 365764.

References

^ Watson, D. W. (1969). "Who speaks for microbiology?". Bacteriological Reviews. 33 (3): 383–389. doi:10.1128/br.33.3.383-389.1969. PMC 378330. PMID 4905850. (ASM presidential address)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Cattell, Jaques, ed. (1949). American Men of Science: A Biographical Dictionary. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: The Science Press. p. 2631.
^ Watson, Dennis W. (1939). "Studies of Fish Spoilage: IV. The Bacterial Reduction of Trimethylamine Oxide". Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. 4b (4): 252–266. doi:10.1139/f38-023.
^ Watson, Dennis W. (1939). "Studies of Fish Spoilage: V. The Role of Trimethylamine Oxide in the Respiration of Achromobacter". Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. 4b (4): 267–280. doi:10.1139/f38-024.
^ Who's Who in Science and Engineering 2008-2009. Marquis Who's Who. December 2007. p. 915. ISBN 9780837957685.
^ Summaries of Doctoral Dissertations, University of Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin Press. 1942. p. 19.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Cohen, Ben (December 8, 2008). "Obituary. Scientist Dennis Watson fought against infectious ills". Star Tribune, Minnesota.
^ "Historic Fellows". American Association for the Advancement of Science.
^ "Scholarships and Fellowships". Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of Minnesota Medical School. 20 November 2018.
^ "Mourning the Passing of Dr. Bill Watson". Colorado Christian University. November 12, 2020.