Master of the master gland: Choh Hao Li, the University of California, and science, migration, and race

Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences

Volumn 39, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 129-170

  Zulueta, Benjamin C ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

Biochemistry; Chinese immigration; Chinese students; Choh Hao Li; Endocrinology; Herbert M. Evans; Hormone Research Laboratory; Pituitary hormones; University of California, Berkeley

Indexed keywords

HYPOPHYSIS HORMONE;

ARTICLE; ASIAN; BIOCHEMISTRY; CHINA; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; ENDOCRINOLOGY; ETHNOLOGY; HISTORY; HUMAN; LABORATORY PERSONNEL; LEGAL ASPECT; MIGRATION; PERSONNEL; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; SCIENCE; SOCIAL CLASS; SOCIAL PROBLEM; UNITED STATES; UNIVERSITY;

ASIAN CONTINENTAL ANCESTRY GROUP; BIOCHEMISTRY; CALIFORNIA; CHINA; EMIGRANTS AND IMMIGRANTS; EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION; ENDOCRINOLOGY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; LABORATORY PERSONNEL; PITUITARY HORMONES; RACE RELATIONS; RESEARCH PERSONNEL; SCIENCE; SOCIAL MOBILITY; UNIVERSITIES;

EID: 77950351239     PISSN: 19391811     EISSN: 1939182X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/hsns.2009.39.2.129     Document Type: Review

References (116)

1. Harvey Cushing, "Disorders of the Pituitary Gland: Retrospective and Prophetic,quot; Journal of the American Medical Association 76 (1921): 1721-26, on 1721
2. Harvey Cushing, "Journal of the American Medical Association Ibid., 1722
3. "Leading Men of Science: Choh Hao Li," Triangle 9 (1969): 41-42
4. "Dr. Li Scores Another First," Medical World News (1962): 56-59, CHLP, Box 47, Folder Clippings-Life, etc. 1950-51, 1961-66
5. Choh Hao Li, "From α-Corticotropin through β-Lipotropin to β-Endorphin," in Selected Topics in the History of Biochemistry: Personal Recollections, Comprehensive Biochemistry, vol. 35, ed. G. Semenza (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1983), 333-52, on 335
6. Choh Hao Li, "The Pituitary," Scientific American 183, no. 4 (1950): 19-22, esp. 20
7. R. David Cole, "Choh Hao Li: Apr 21, 1913-Nov 28, 1987," Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences 70 (1996): 220-39, on 224-25
8. V. J. Hruby, "In Memoriam: Choh Hao Li, April 21, 1913-November 28, 1987," International Journal of Protein & Peptide Research 31 (1988): 253-54
9. Leslie L. Bennett et al., "Choh Hao Li, Biochemistry: San Francisco," Academic Senate, Berkeley Division, University of California: In Memoriam, 1988, http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=hb967nb5k3&brand= calisphere (accessed 11 Aug 2008)
10. "Isolation of Growth Hormone," University Bulletin: A Weekly Bulletin for the Staff of the University of California (19 Nov 1956), 76, CHLP, Box 46, Folder untitled, but devoted to isolation of GH
11. "Hormone Elevates Antibody Titers," Medical News (8 Apr 1957), 4, CHLP
12. Li was touted as the "hormone hunter" upon his receipt of the Lasker Foundation's award for basic medical research in 1962; see "Dr. Li Scores Another First" (ref. 5)
13. "Cancer Insight: Monkey's Growth Hormone Isolated," S. F. Call-Bulletin, 29 Oct 1956
14. See also William Boquist, "UC Scientist Isolates Human Growth Hormone," San Francisco Examiner, 29 Oct 1956
15. Walter C. Alvarez, "U.C. Expert Tests Growth Hormone from Monkeys," Oakland Tribune, 27 Jan 1957, all in CHLP (ref. 10)
16. "UC Scientist Isolates Human Growth Hormone," San Francisco Chronicle, 31 Oct 1956, CHLP (ref. 10)
17. "The 100 Most Important People in the World," New York Times, 20 Mar 1970. This was an advertisement for an article of the same title in Esquire magazine. The Esquire article was, in turn, a description of a book, also of the same title, by Donald Robinson. Since nothing in either the advertisement or the description of the Esquire article alluded to the fact that the list was in alphabetical order, readers of the Times could be forgiven for wondering (and paying to find out): who is Choh Hao Li, and why is he considered more important not only than Chairman Mao, but also Robert S. McNamara and Richard M. Nixon?
18. See also "The 100 Most Important People in the World: Who's Who Among the Destinies that Shape Your Ends," Esquire (1970), 104-07
19. Donald B. Robinson, The 100 Most Important People in the World Today (New York: Putnam, 1970)
20. Joseph Alsop, "New American S uccess Story," Los Angeles Times, 12 Jan 1971
21. Joseph Alsop, "New American S uccess Story," Los Angeles Times, Ibid
22. Lawrence Badash, "Science and McCarthyism," Minerva 38 (2000): 53-80
23. Mae M. Ngai, "Legacies of Exclusion: Illegal Chinese Immigration during the Cold War Years," Journal of American Ethnic History 18 (1998): 3-35, on 7-8
24. Mae M. Ngai, "Journal of American Ethnic History Ibid., 27
25. Badash, "Science and McCarthyism" (ref. 19), 60
26. For details about Tsien, see Iris Chang, Thread of the Silkworm (New York: Basic Books, 1995)
27. Milton Viorst, Hustlers and Heroes: An American Political Panorama (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971), 135-58
28. William L. Ryan and Sam Summerlin, The China Cloud: America's Tragic Blunder and China's Rise to Nuclear Power (Boston: Little, Brown, 1968)
29. In a review of biographies about and autobiographies by molecular biologists and biochemists, Pnina Abir-Am labeled this phenomenon the "scientific Cinder ella" stor y. Pnina G. Abir-Am, "Noblesse Oblige: Lives of Molecular Biologists," Isis 82 (1991): 326-43, on 327
30. Paul R. Spickard, Almost All Aliens: Immigration, Race, and Colonialism in American History and Identity (New York: Routledge, 2007), 1-28
31. Details about Li's life in this and the following paragraph are taken from Cole, "Choh Hao Li" (ref. 8)
32. "Biographical Statement," Register of the Choh Hao Li Papers, 1937-1987, CHLP
33. W. V. Evans, F. H. Lee, and C. H. Li, "The Decomposition Voltage of Grignard Reagents in Ether Solution," Journal of the American Chemical Society 56 (1935): 489-90
34. "Dr. Li Studies Hormones," Free World (1952), 32-34, entire issue in CHLP (ref. 5)
35. Edwin G. Clausen, "Nationalism and Political Challenge: Chinese Students, American Education, and the End of an Era," Asian Profile 16 (1988): 429-51, on 430
36. Edwin G. Clausen, "Asian Profile Ibid., 429
37. W. W. Yen, "China and the United States," Chinese Students' Monthly 1 (1909)
38. quoted in Edwin Clausen, "The Eagle's Shadow: Chinese Nationalism and American Educational Influence, 1900-1927," Asian Profile 16 (1988): 413-28, on 419
39. Li, "From ¥ á-Corticotropin" (ref. 6), 334-35
40. Choh Hao Li, "A. Comparison of Basicity of Aliphatic Amines in Different Solvents. B. The Kinetics and Mechanism of [Alpha]-Amino Nitrile Formation" (PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1938)
41. Bennett et al., "Choh Hao Li" (ref. 9), 92
42. "Biographical Statement" (ref. 26), 2
43. Li, "From α-Corticotropin" (ref. 6), 335
44. Li, "Pituitary" (ref. 7), 19
45. Alison Li, "J. B. Collip, A. M. Hanson and the Isolation of the Parathyroid Hormone, or Endocrines and Enterprise," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 47 (1992): 405-38
46. Robert E. Kohler, Partners in Science: Foundations and Natural Scientists, 1900-1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 275-82
47. Eugene P. Kennedy, "Hitler's Gift and the E ra of B iosynthesis," Journal of Biological Chemistry 276 (2001): 42619-31, esp. 42623-27
48. Robert E. Kohler, "Rudolph Schoenheimer, Isotopic Tracers, and Biochemistry in the 1930s," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 8 (1977): 257-98
49. Robert E. Kohler, From Medical Chemistry to Biochemistry: The Making of a Biomedical Discipline (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 327-28, on 329
50. Peter J. Westwick, "'Abraded from Several Corners': Medical Physics and Biophysics at Berkeley," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 27, no. 1 (1996): 131-62, on 132
51. Angela N. H. Creager, "Wendell Stanley's Dream of a Free-Standing Biochemistry Department at the University of California, Berkeley," Journal of the History of Biology 29 (1996): 331-60, on 332-33
52. Lily E. Kay, "W. M. Stanley's Crystallization of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus, 1930-1940," Isis 77 (1986): 450-72, on 461-64
53. Angela N. H. Creager, The Life of a Virus: Tobacco Mosaic Virus as an Experimental Model, 1930-1965 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 154
54. J. H. Wagner to Choh Hao Li, 30 Sep 1939, CHLP, Box 1, Folder M-W Unidentified 1939-41
55. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service form letter, n.d., enclosed in J. H. Wagner to Choh Hao Li, 30 Sep 1939, CHLP (ibid.)
56. "U.S. Department of Labor, Immigration and Naturalization Service-General Requirements for Immigration Visas," 1 Apr 1938, CHLP
57. See Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life (New York: HarperCollins, 1990), 294-302
58. The 1924 Act defined the student category as: "An immigrant who is a bona fide student at least fifteen years of age who seeks to enter the United States solely for the purpose of study at an accredited school, college, seminar y, or university, particularly designated b y him and appr oved by the Attorney General." United States, Laws Applicable to Immigration and Nationality, Embracing Statutes of a Permanent Character, and Treaties, Proclamations, Executive Orders, and Reorganization Plans Affecting the Immigration and Naturalization Service, comp. Carl B. Hyatt (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1954), 413
59. Li to the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, 14 Nov 1940, CHLP (ref. 47)
60. T. L. Tsui to Howard K. Travers, 14 Aug 1944, CHLP, Carton 1, Folder Department of State 1944
61. Li to Meng, 22 May 1942, CHLP (ibid.)
62. David M. Reimers, Still the Golden Door: The Third World Comes to America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992), 12
63. Ngai, "Legacies of Exclusion" (ref. 20), 7-8
64. Reimers, Still the Golden Door (ref. 60), 12
65. "How to Tell Japs from the Chinese," Life, 22 Dec 1941, 81-82
66. "How to Tell Your Friends from the Japs," Time, 22 Dec 1941, 33
67. Liu to Li, 17 Jun 1942, CHLP (ref. 57)
68. Gregory Pincus, "To Whom It May Concern," 5 Aug 1944, CHLP
69. Erwin P. Vollmer, "Can Hormones Help Win the Peace?" Scientific Monthly 57 (1943): 483-88
70. "Hormone to Aid Growth Isolated, But It Is Too Costly for Wide Use," New York Times, 8 Mar 1944
71. [Choh Ming] Li to CH and Annie [Li], 3 Aug 1944, CHLP (ref. 54)
72. Pincus, "To Whom It May Concern" (ref. 66)
73. Hazel W. Barrows to Choh Hao Li, 12 Mar 1943, CHLP, Carton 1, Folder A-G 1942-43
74. Helen Chin to Choh Hao Li, 7 Oct 1945, CHLP, Carton 1, Folder China 1944-49
75. Ruth Newhall, "U.C. Professor Jubilant about Possibilities for ACTH," newspaper clipping, CHLP, Box 46, Folder Clippings 1947
76. Kai O. Pedersen, "The Svedberg and Arne Tiselius: The Early Development of Modern Protein Chemistry at Uppsala," in Semenza, Selected Topics (ref. 6), 233-81, on 235
77. Neil Morgan, "From Physiology to Biochemistry," in Companion to the History of Modern Science, ed. R. C. Olby et al. (London: Routledge, 1990), 494-502, on 500
78. Robert Olby, "The Molecular Revolution in B iology," in (Companion to the History of Modern Science, ibid.) 503-20, on 505. I ndeed, Astbury was one of the first, after Warren Weaver of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1938, to use the term "molecular biology."
79. See Eugene L. Hess, "Origins of Molecular Biology," Science 168 (1970): 664-99, on 664
80. William T. Astbury to Choh Hao Li, 20 Sep 1949, CHLP, Carton 1, Folder Li, Choh Hao-Employment Negotiations 1949-50
81. Creager, "Wendell Stanley's Dream" (ref. 42), 331
82. Stanley to Li, 15 Nov 1949, CHLP (ref. 87)
83. E. C. Amoroso and G. W. Corner, "Herbert McLean Evans, 1882-1971," Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 18 (1972): 83-186, on 145
84. I. D. Raacke, "Herbert McLean Evans (1882-1972): A Biographical Sketch," Journal of Nutrition 113 (1983): 929-41, on 930
85. Leslie L. Bennett, "Herbert McLean Evans, A Rare Spirit," Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 22 (1978): 90-103, on 102
86. Choh Hao Li was also thought of as having a "sometimes difficult personality." Aaron B. Lerner, "The Discovery of the Melanotropins: A History of Pituitary Endocrinology," Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 680 (1993): 1-12, on 4
87. Tiselius to Sproul, 15 Nov 1949, CHLP (ref. 87)
88. "Programme of the Final Examination for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Choh-Hao Li," booklet interleaved in Choh Hao Li, "A. Comparison of Basicity" (ref. 34)
89. Evans to Li, 16 Nov 1949, CHLP (ref. 87)
90. Laurance W. Kinsell, C. H. Li, Sheldon Margen, George D. Michaels, and Robert N. Hedges, "Metabolic Effects of a Peptide Mixture Derived from ACTH (Li) in Comparison with Those Resulting from Whole ACTH Administration in a Human Subject," in Proceedings of the First Clinical ACTH Conference, ed. J ohn R. M ote (Philadelphia: The Blakiston Company, 1950), 70-85
91. Li to S tanley, 16 Dec 1949, CHLP (ibid.) (emphasis added)
92. Li to Evans, 16 Dec 1949, CHLP (ibid.)
93. William F. Giauque to Choh Hao Li, 23 Dec 1949, CHLP (ibid.). Li sent Stanley a carbon copy of the letter to Evans in which he proudly mentioned his three research assistants in Uppsala; see Li to Evans, 16 Dec 1949, CHLP (ref. 87)
94. Giauque to Li, 23 Dec 1949, CHLP (ibid.)
95. Giauque to Li, 27 Dec 1949, CHLP (ibid.)
96. Giauque to Li, 6 Jan 1950, CHLP (ibid.)
97. Evans to Li, 9 Jan 1950, CHLP (ibid.)
98. Li to Sproul, 23 Jan 1950, CHLP (ibid.)
99. Stanley to Li, 14 Jan 1950, CHLP (ibid.)
100. "Hormone to Aid Growth Isolated" (ref. 68)
101. Peggy Von Eschen, "Who's the Real Ambassador? Exploding Cold War Racial Ideology," in Cold War Constructions: The Political Culture of United States Imperialism, 1945-1966, ed. Christian G. Appy (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000), 110-31
102. Peggy Von Eschen, "Cold War Constructions: The Political Culture of United States Imperialism, 1945-1966, Ibid., 110
103. "Dr. Li Studies Hormones" (ref. 28)
104. Choh Hao Li to Arne Tiselius, 13 Jul 1950, CHLP, Carton 2, Folder Tiselius, Arne 1950
105. Pauling was the recipient of the Gilbert Newton Lewis award, also newly established, in honor of the longtime dean of UC Berkeley's College of Chemistry who had admitted Choh Hao Li on probation almost two decades earlier. See The Vortex: Bulletin of the California Section of the American Chemical Society 13 (1952), entire issue in CHLP, Box 46, Folder untitled
106. "UC Hormone Expert Wins $3,500 Prize for Research Here," Berkeley Daily Gazette, 6 Oct 1955, CHLP, Box 47, Folder untitled (emphasis added)
107. Choh Hao Li, ed., Hormone Research Laboratory, 1950-1970 (Berkeley: University of California Printing Department, 1970), v
108. Dael Wolfe to Choh Hao Li, 20 Dec 1954, CHLP, Carton 4, Folder A-Misc (Am-Au) 1954-63
109. Monlin Chiang to Choh Hao Li, 15 Jan 1955, CHLP, Carton 4, Folder C-Misc (Che-Cl) 1954-63
110. Thomas L. Dao to Choh Hao Li, 9 Feb 1953, CHLP, Carton 3, Folder Dao, Thomas L. 1953
111. Ignace T. T. Ai to Choh Hao Li, 1 Aug 1959, CHLP, Carton 4, Folder A-Misc (Ab-Al) 1955-63
112. Ruei-Chen Chen to Li, CHLP (ref. 135)
113. Von Eschen, "Real Ambassador?" (ref. 126)
114. "Dr. Li Studies Hormones" (ref. 129)
115. Choh Hao Li to R. C. Buerki, 20 Jul 1954, CHLP, Carton 5, Folder Li, Choh Luh (brother) 1956-61; W. F. Parkinson to United States American Consul, 25 Jul 1954, CHLP, Carton 5, Folder Li, C. H., Misc Correspondence 1954-59
116. "Student Wins Award," Berkeley High School Jacket, 14 Oct 1955, CHLP, Box 47, Folder untitled