GROSSMAN, MORTON IRVIN

GROSSMAN, MORTON IRVIN (1919–1981), U.S. gastroenterologist. Born and educated in Ohio, he received his M.D. and Ph.D. in 1944 from Northwestern University. Grossman first served as assistant biochemist (1939–41) at Ohio State University Medical School and from 1950 to 1951 as professor of physiology in the Department of Clinical Sciences. From 1951 to 1955 he was chief of physiology in the Division of Medical Nutrition first in Chicago and then at Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Denver. In 1955 he joined the faculty of the University of California School of Medicine and was appointed chairman of the Department of Medicine in 1965. Grossman was consultant to the National Institutes of Health (1960–65) and a member of many professional societies. He was the father of modern gastrointestinal endocrine physiology. His most important contributions lay in defining the secretory mechanisms of the stomach and pancreas actions and of regulatory gastrointestinal peptides. He served as editor of Gastroenterology (1960–65) and wrote many papers on the physiology of the alimentary tract, gastrointestinal hormones, and the physiology of nutrition. (Fred Rosner / Bracha Rager (2nd ed.)