Walter Rudolf Hess

Walter Rudolf Hess married Louise Sandmeier. The couple was blessed with two children - daughter Gertrud Hess in 1910 and son Rudolf Max Hess in 1913.

He died of heart failure on August 12, 1973, at the age of 92, in Locarno, Switzerland.

Walter Rudolf Hess was born on March 17, 1881, in Frauenfeld, Switzerland to Clemens Hess and Gertrud Hess. He was second of the three children born to the couple. His father was a teacher in physics.

Young Hess acquired the acumen of his father, who in turn allowed the little boy to handle apparatus and equipment at the physics laboratory. As a child, Hess was self-reliant. He was blessed with observational skills that helped him to closely observe the surroundings.

Hess completed his formal education from Gymnasium in 1900. It was on pursuance of his father that Hess took up a scientific career. He visited a number of universities in Lausanne, Berne, Berlin and Kiel before completing his medical degree from the University of Zurich in 1906.

Though Walter Rudolf Hess always wanted to become a physiologist, certain factors prohibited him to plunge on to physiology immediately following his studies. As such, he trained himself as a surgeon under Conrad Brunner. During his assistance to Bruner, Hess published his dissertation titled ‘Zum Thema Viskosität des Blutes und Herzarbeit’. He also developed the viscosimeter, an instrument for measuring blood viscosity.

In 1907, he returned to the University of Zurich to train himself as an ophthalmologist under Otto Haab. Upon completing his training, Hess started practicing as an ophthalmologist. It was while being an ophthalmologist that Hess developed a sense of precision and fastidiousness that eventually helped him in his career as a physiologist.

In 1912, Hess made the big move – he let go off his lucrative career as an ophthalmologist to pursue his first love, physiology. He researched under Justus Gaule and in the following year became a Privatdozent. Hess was interested in regulation of blood flow and respiration.

During First World War, Hess remained at the Physiological Institute of the University of Bonn, under the guidance of Max Verworn. In 1916, when Gaule retired, Hess took up as an interim director of the Department of the Physiological Institute at the University of Zurich.

In 1917, Hess was promoted to position of a full-time professor and Director of the Physiological Institute at the University of Zurich. He served in this position until his retirement 1951.

Hess discovered the role played by certain parts of the brain in elucidating and coordinating functions of the internal organs. Further research helped him determine that the interbrain acted as a coordinator of the activities done by the internal organs such as digesting, urinating, excreting, and so on. For this, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949.