Chase, Herman B.

Herman Burleigh Chase (1913-1984), professor of biology, was born in New Hampton, New Hampshire, on May 7, 1913. He graduated from the New Hampton School in 1930 and from Dartmouth College in 1934. He earned his Ph.D. degree at the University of Chicago in 1938. From 1938 to 1948 he taught at the University of Illinois. In 1948 he came to Brown as associate professor of biology. He was promoted to professor in 1952 and given the title of Robert P. Brown Professor of Biology in 1960. He was chairman of the Department of Biology from 1963 to 1965, and when the department became the Division of Biological and Medical Sciences, he served as Director of Biology from 1965 to 1967. In 1967 he was named Director of the Institute for Health Sciences. He was involved in the merger of biology and medicine into a single division, a decision which he later regretted because of the preoccupation with medicine. Chase was an authority on baldness and gray hair. Outside of the University he presented papers on genetics and radiobiology in many foreign countries, and served as visiting lecturer in genetics for the American Institute of Biological Sciences, as a consultant for the AEC and for Guatemalan Asociacion General de Agricultores, as a member of the Man-in-Space Committee of the National Science Board, and as a member of Task Group I for the International Commission on Radiological Protection. After retiring in 1978 he went back to New Hampton and for five years was chairman of the science department at the Sant Bani Ashram School. He died on April 23, 1984 in New Hampton.