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Tokio Nei 1913–1984
CRYOBIOLOGY
22, 503-508 (1985)
IN MEMORIAM Tokio Nei 1913-1984
It was with a deeply felt sadness that we learned of the death last year of Professor Tokio Nei after an extended illness. Professor Nei was one of the first members of the Society for Cryobiology and it is most fitting that we recognize his remarkable personal contributions to low temperature science in the Society’s Journal. Tokio Nei was born in 1913 in Hokkaido, Japan, and studied microbiology and medicine at Hokkaido University where he graduated in microbiology in 1937 and was awarded a doctorate in medicine in 1943. Already an assistant professor, Dr. Nei became an associate professor in 1944 and a professor in 1948. Professor Nei directed the Medical Section of the Institute of Low Temperature Science at Hokkaido University to the time of his retirement in 1977. He was the Director of the entire institute from 19.56to 1959. Dr. Nei was appointed to a professorship at Higashi-NihonGakuen University in Sapporo after he retired from the Institute of Low Temperature Science at Hokkaido University. Later he moved to Tsukuba University near Tokyo where he was appointed as a visiting professor to the time of his death. It would appear that Professor Nei’s earliest scientific interests were in microbiology and immunology and that he was strongly attracted to freezing and freezedrying when he saw how well the methods allowed the preservation of systems as complex as living cells. Low temperature methods were, of course, new at the time in most respects and essentially undeveloped in many ways. Placed in a proper historical context, Professor Nei was one of
the very first champions of these new low temperature methodologies. He was one of the first to undertake fundamental studies on the nature of the processes involved. Similarly and, perhaps, remarkably, he was among the first to promote medical and pharmaceutical applications of the procedures. Certainly he was distinguished by his very wide concern with the theory and practice of freezing and freeze-drying. Professor Nei developed and maintained numerous particular low temperature interests. He was especially interested in the freeze-drying preservation of microorganisms and he directed a continuing research activity related to the freeze-drying preservation of yeasts and bacteria during much of his professional life. He was equally interested in the application of freezing and freeze-drying to the preparation of specimen material for light and electron microscopy and very aware of the value of any method that circumvented a chemical fixation. He constructed modified light and electron microscopes in which he viewed the freezing and freeze-drying of living cells and was, without question, a pioneer in these fields. Professor Nei’s very beautiful demonstrations of the freeze-drying of biological material in the transmission electron microscope predate those of recent workers by the best part of a quarter century. Tokio Nei was greatly and continuously interested also in the cryopreservation of animal and especially of human cells requiring the presence of low molecular weight cryoprotectants. He was concerned with mechanisms of cryoprotection and of
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504
IN
MEMORIAM:
cryoinjury and he contributed in several most significant ways to our understanding of the mechanisms of cryoinjury. He was among the tirst to address the question of the physical packing of seemingly sufficiently cryoprotected human erythrocytes. He was the first and only person to date to undertake the quantitative description of the deleterious effect of submicroscopic intracellular ice developed during the controlled warming of the same cells after a very much faster cooling. Professor Nei’s work is to be found in about 140 published articles and textbooks. A bibliography documenting references to those many works is appended. Professor Tokio Nei was diligent and effective in his sustained effort to bring Japanese low temperature science to the attention of those in the West and in his further willingness to return to Japan with and to interpret information he gathered abroad. Tokio Nei was a dedicated traveler and a very familiar and most welcome figure at the meetings of the Society for Cryobiology. He tried whenever he could to include several meetings in one trip and to visit Western scientists in their own laboratories. Enduring and resilient, he must have circled the globe a great many times during his scientific life. Professor Nei understood the importance of international communication in low temperature science and medicine and the value of the worldwide application of the basic information obtained in different countries. He was a strong advocate of the International Institute of Refrigeration and served for many years as President of Commission Cl of the same organization, the
TOKIO
NE1
commission constituted to cater to interests in cryobiology, freeze-drying, and medical applications of refrigeration. Credit for numerous major international meetings in the low temperature sciences goes first and principally to Tokio Nei. We need only recall the most successful 15th Annual Meeting of the Society for Cryobiology in Tokyo in 1978 to recognize Professor Nei’s extreme interest in the process of scientific exchange and his ability to attend to every necessary detail on such an occasion. Dr. Nei worked with me in my laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1962 and impressed me greatly in many ways. He seemed to combin; a quiet enthusiasm, an economy of thinking, and a patience at the bench and yet he was entirely effective and much to the point in all his work. I admired the way in which he learned to speak and to write in English and I count myself very grateful that I should have known him for so many years. Professor Nei is survived by his wife, three daughters, three sons-in-law, and grandchildren. Many members of the Society for Cryobiology will recall those very pleasant occasions when Mrs. Nei accompanied her husband to North American, British, and European meetings. Mrs. Nei charmed us all in her own quiet and delightful way. The writer extends his heartfelt sympathies to Mrs. Nei and to her daughters and their families and mourns the loss of a kind and thoughtful human being and a close personal friend and teacher. ALAN P. MACKENZIE University of Washington Scuttle,
Washington
22, 503-508 (1985)
IN MEMORIAM Tokio Nei 1913-1984
It was with a deeply felt sadness that we learned of the death last year of Professor Tokio Nei after an extended illness. Professor Nei was one of the first members of the Society for Cryobiology and it is most fitting that we recognize his remarkable personal contributions to low temperature science in the Society’s Journal. Tokio Nei was born in 1913 in Hokkaido, Japan, and studied microbiology and medicine at Hokkaido University where he graduated in microbiology in 1937 and was awarded a doctorate in medicine in 1943. Already an assistant professor, Dr. Nei became an associate professor in 1944 and a professor in 1948. Professor Nei directed the Medical Section of the Institute of Low Temperature Science at Hokkaido University to the time of his retirement in 1977. He was the Director of the entire institute from 19.56to 1959. Dr. Nei was appointed to a professorship at Higashi-NihonGakuen University in Sapporo after he retired from the Institute of Low Temperature Science at Hokkaido University. Later he moved to Tsukuba University near Tokyo where he was appointed as a visiting professor to the time of his death. It would appear that Professor Nei’s earliest scientific interests were in microbiology and immunology and that he was strongly attracted to freezing and freezedrying when he saw how well the methods allowed the preservation of systems as complex as living cells. Low temperature methods were, of course, new at the time in most respects and essentially undeveloped in many ways. Placed in a proper historical context, Professor Nei was one of
the very first champions of these new low temperature methodologies. He was one of the first to undertake fundamental studies on the nature of the processes involved. Similarly and, perhaps, remarkably, he was among the first to promote medical and pharmaceutical applications of the procedures. Certainly he was distinguished by his very wide concern with the theory and practice of freezing and freeze-drying. Professor Nei developed and maintained numerous particular low temperature interests. He was especially interested in the freeze-drying preservation of microorganisms and he directed a continuing research activity related to the freeze-drying preservation of yeasts and bacteria during much of his professional life. He was equally interested in the application of freezing and freeze-drying to the preparation of specimen material for light and electron microscopy and very aware of the value of any method that circumvented a chemical fixation. He constructed modified light and electron microscopes in which he viewed the freezing and freeze-drying of living cells and was, without question, a pioneer in these fields. Professor Nei’s very beautiful demonstrations of the freeze-drying of biological material in the transmission electron microscope predate those of recent workers by the best part of a quarter century. Tokio Nei was greatly and continuously interested also in the cryopreservation of animal and especially of human cells requiring the presence of low molecular weight cryoprotectants. He was concerned with mechanisms of cryoprotection and of
503 001 l-2240185 $3.00 Copyright 411 rlghtr
‘C IYX? hy Academic I’rr\\. Inc. of rrproduction in dny form rexrvrd.
504
IN
MEMORIAM:
cryoinjury and he contributed in several most significant ways to our understanding of the mechanisms of cryoinjury. He was among the tirst to address the question of the physical packing of seemingly sufficiently cryoprotected human erythrocytes. He was the first and only person to date to undertake the quantitative description of the deleterious effect of submicroscopic intracellular ice developed during the controlled warming of the same cells after a very much faster cooling. Professor Nei’s work is to be found in about 140 published articles and textbooks. A bibliography documenting references to those many works is appended. Professor Tokio Nei was diligent and effective in his sustained effort to bring Japanese low temperature science to the attention of those in the West and in his further willingness to return to Japan with and to interpret information he gathered abroad. Tokio Nei was a dedicated traveler and a very familiar and most welcome figure at the meetings of the Society for Cryobiology. He tried whenever he could to include several meetings in one trip and to visit Western scientists in their own laboratories. Enduring and resilient, he must have circled the globe a great many times during his scientific life. Professor Nei understood the importance of international communication in low temperature science and medicine and the value of the worldwide application of the basic information obtained in different countries. He was a strong advocate of the International Institute of Refrigeration and served for many years as President of Commission Cl of the same organization, the
TOKIO
NE1
commission constituted to cater to interests in cryobiology, freeze-drying, and medical applications of refrigeration. Credit for numerous major international meetings in the low temperature sciences goes first and principally to Tokio Nei. We need only recall the most successful 15th Annual Meeting of the Society for Cryobiology in Tokyo in 1978 to recognize Professor Nei’s extreme interest in the process of scientific exchange and his ability to attend to every necessary detail on such an occasion. Dr. Nei worked with me in my laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1962 and impressed me greatly in many ways. He seemed to combin; a quiet enthusiasm, an economy of thinking, and a patience at the bench and yet he was entirely effective and much to the point in all his work. I admired the way in which he learned to speak and to write in English and I count myself very grateful that I should have known him for so many years. Professor Nei is survived by his wife, three daughters, three sons-in-law, and grandchildren. Many members of the Society for Cryobiology will recall those very pleasant occasions when Mrs. Nei accompanied her husband to North American, British, and European meetings. Mrs. Nei charmed us all in her own quiet and delightful way. The writer extends his heartfelt sympathies to Mrs. Nei and to her daughters and their families and mourns the loss of a kind and thoughtful human being and a close personal friend and teacher. ALAN P. MACKENZIE University of Washington Scuttle,
Washington