Dr. Bertram Baila Löw-Beer

Bertram V.A. Low-Beer, Radiology: San Francisco

1900-1955 Professor On September 25, 1955, the University lost one of the outstanding professors from the School of Medicine in San Francisco. Dr. Bertram V. A. Low-Beer passed away on that date, a victim of leukemia. He is missed not only by his colleagues at the University but by all those interested in the advancement of radiation therapy and the safe use of radioisotopes in medical research and practice.

Dr. Low-Beer was born in Topolcany, Czechoslovakia, on December 11, 1900. He began his medical education at the University Medical School in Budapest and completed it at the German University in Prague, from which he was graduated in 1923. He received his M.D. degree in 1924 after a year of hospital training. Immediately thereafter, he entered the field of radiology, training three years in various centers in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, and Germany. From October, 1928, to March, 1934, he practiced radiology in Prague, much of his practice being connected with the University Hospital. From 1934 to 1939 he had a private practice and did considerable insurance work. He was a Permanent Expert for Radiology at the High Court of Prague.

In January, 1939, owing to growing Nazi influence and intolerance, he went first to Paris and did research work at the Curie Institute and in the Electro-Radiology Department of l'Hospital de la Pitie until August, 1939. At that time, he became a research worker in the Physics Department at the

― 74 ― University of Birmingham (England), where he started work on radioisotopes and neutrons with Professor Oliphant. He came to the United States in February, 1941, to study radioisotopes with Dr. John H. Lawrence at the Radiation Laboratory. Realizing that he required a license to practice medicine in the State of California before being permitted to use isotopes on patients, Dr. Low-Beer asked permission to take a rotating internship at the University of California Hospital, and was accepted in 1942. Even though then forty-one years old, he worked so diligently and so pleasantly at his duties that he endeared himself to the whole staff of the Hospital.

In 1943 he joined the staff of the Department of Radiology as a Lecturer and then progressed rapidly through the ranks of Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and finally Professor of Radiology (1951). His appointment was in the field of radiation therapy and this work he performed with such a high degree of proficiency and thoroughness that it became an outstanding example to many of his colleagues. From the beginning of his service in the X-ray Department, he continued to use artificial radioactive materials in medicine, following up the training he had received at the Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, and made many contributions to this field. His book on The Clinical Use of Radioactive Isotopes, published in 1950, was the first of its kind in the world and was well accepted in all quarters. It is unfortunate that the revision of this book, which he had planned, will never be completed.

Dr. Low-Beer was very active in other fields in addition to his work in the Department of Radiology. He was a member of the Cancer Board of the School of Medicine and of the committee that brought it into existence. He was a President's appointee on the Cancer Research Coordinating Committee, Northern Section, for several years. He was the first chairman of the University of California Statewide Committee on

― 75 ― Radiation Safety, and spent much time in bringing uniformity to the safe handling of radioactive materials on the various campuses. His interest in research commenced while he was a medical student in his second year when he did research work in the Department of Experimental Pathology. His creative, investigative mind produced twenty-one publications prior to his leaving Czechoslovakia; so it was no surprise when he entered research work in Paris, Birmingham, Berkeley, and San Francisco. While at the University of California, his major research activities were concerned with the diagnostic and therapeutic uses of artificially produced radioactive substances, rotational therapy, grid therapy, and accurate radiation therapy of all kinds. His last research activities were associated with the staff of the Donner Laboratory, where he was radiological consultant and supervisor in the treatment, with proton radiation from the 184-inch cyclotron, of the pituitary of patients having advanced cancer.

His services were in demand elsewhere than within the University, as is evidenced by his consultant appointments to the United States Naval Hospital, Oak Knoll, California, and the United States Veterans Hospital in San Francisco. He was an honorary member of the Second Mexican Cancer Congress, and an invited participant in the Seventh International Congress of Radiology in Copenhagen. He was very active as a member of the American Hospital Association Committee on the Use of Radioisotopes in Hospitals.

Besides his outstanding accomplishments as a physician, radiologist, and research scientist, Dr. Low-Beer possessed a personality that will not soon be forgotten. Most of the time he had a very pleasant, jovial manner, but he could become extremely agitated over incorrectly or carelessly performed duties. He was loved and admired by most of his colleagues, but somewhat feared by those who did not devote themselves wholeheartedly to their work. He was aided in his first research

― 76 ― studies in this country by the delightful young woman who later became his wife, and who stood beside him throughout his professional career in this country. Dr. Low-Beer never can be replaced, because no one else will have the combination of talents and infectious enthusiasm that marked his life and work, but some little part of him exists in each resident who trained under him.

R. S. Stone J. H. Lawrence C. A. Tobias

• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Oct 17 2017, 7:50:06 UTC