UC Davis Library Timeline – Who was Loren D. Carlson

“We must accept the inevitability of change in university structure from an aristocratic one to a democratic form involving the student and faculty community in its decisions. Somehow, we must change the connotation of the conjunction between teaching and research to teaching with research so that the public and government recognize their inseparable nature in the university.”

Loren D. Carlson, The way of an investigator–reanalyzed, The Physiologist, 12:425-432 (1969).

Loren Daniel Carlson was the chief innovator of the curriculum that has been the basic curricular pattern of the University of California, Davis Medical School. By gaining the respect and confidence of his colleagues, he became a continuous source of advice on administrative matters on the Davis campus. His ability to perceive and establish relationships was apparent to all who sought his advice. He was particularly accessible and communicative to students and faculty members.

After receiving his Ph.D. in zoology in 1941 at the University of Iowa, Professor Carlson later joined the Zoology Department at the University of Washington, Seattle in 1946. He was appointed to the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and later became the chairman of the department at the University of Kentucky, Lexington Medical School in 1960. In 1966 he came to the medical school at Davis as assistant dean and chairman of the division of sciences basic to medicine, a post he held concurrently with the chairmanship of the Department of Human Physiology. He was elected chairman of the physiology graduate group and served as a catalyst in the development of a creative interdepartmental and scientifically productive graduate program.

Dr Carlson was a consultant to various offices of the President of the United States, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Academy of Science. He made important contributions concerning adaptation to cold and the role of the sympathetic nervous system in regulation of heat production in homeotherms. In 1969 the University of Oslo, Norway awarded him a Ph.D. honoris causa. He was elected president of the American Physiological Society (1968-69) and served as president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (1969-70).
— Extracted from: Hsieh, A. et al. In Memoriam. University of California, July 1973.

The Regents of the University of California in executive session on June 20, 1980, approved “that the Health Sciences Library, located in Building B of the Medical School Complex, Davis campus, be designated the Loren Daniel Carlson Health Sciences Library.” The renaming ceremony and dedication took place on December 12, 1984.

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