Alan S. Parkes

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Lived	10 September 1900-17 July 1990
Occupation	Scientist

Sir Alan Sterling Parkes (1900-1990) earned one of the first undergraduate degrees in agriculture at Cambridge in 1921, where Marshall was his tutor. He completed his Ph.D. in zoology at Manchester University on factors governing the sex ration. In 1923 Parkes moved to the physiology department of the Medical Sciences Faculty, University College, London, the site of some of the most advanced nonreproductive physiological and endocrinological research of the day. And it was this tradition that Parkes took up and directed toward reproductive problems.^[1]

Parkes was the chairman of the Society for the Study of Fertility and the Zoological Society in London.

Biography

Alan Parkes was one of the most influential figures in the field of reproductive biology in the twentieth century. He had a huge impact on its growth and development during that time, and the legacy of his work still remains. His research was highly innovative and original because of his imaginative and inquiring mind, which, coupled with an entrepreneurial bent, led him into several very different fields and into unchartered waters. He played a leading role in the spectacular rise of reproductive endocrinology in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s when the nature and activity of many of the reproductive processes in animals and humans and was an essential factor in the development of methods for their control. Even more pioneering was his research in low-temperature biology in the years after World War II. This was sparked off by the discovery that glycerol had a remarkable property of protecting spermatozoa against damage during freezing and storage at very low temperatures. Far-reaching applications arose from this discovery, especially in the preservation of bull semen, which led to a worldwide revolution in artificial insemination in cattle. Later, many other cells and tissues were also successfully frozen, including red blood cells, ovarian tissue and bone marrow, and a new branch of biological science, which became known as 'cryobiology', was born, Effects of deep hypothermia, including freezing, on whole animals were also investigated at that time. Having successfully launched a new area of science, it was characteristic of Alan Parkes to switch to new fields. First he became interested in the influence of pheromones on mammalian reproduction. Then, resuming a long-standing interest in comparative aspects of reproductive physiology in British wild mammals, he became involved in the work of the Nuffield Unit of Tropical Animal Ecology in Uganda, where similar studies were carried out on African animals. Even after retirement from the academic field, he was for some years a consultant to an enterprise in the conservation and captive breeding of green sea turtles in the Cayman Islands. In addition to his research, Alan Parkes was just as influential through the huge amount of work that he did for committees and other activities. Over the years he was on 35 different committees, study groups or advisory groups, and these were concerned with a wide variety of interests. He often served as chairman or secretary and had a great ability to take on a large amount of work and responsibility. He threw himself wholeheartedly into promoting the interests of reproductive biology and was a founding member of both the Society of Endocrinology and the Society for the Study of Fertility. He also played a leading role in the establishment and running of the Journal of Endocrinology and the Journal of Reproduction and Fertility. Getting these journals established often required a considerable amount of financial acumen. One of his special concerns was a long-standing interest in demographic and population issues, which led to his working closely with the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the Family Planning Association. He saw the 'population explosion' as a growing threat to the environment and to human welfare, and he was an outstanding proponent of measures to effect population control. Sometimes this led him into controversial areas. He spoke strongly in support of women's right to abortion and questioned the morality of expensive measures to overcome infertility. Throughout his life he was a prolific and lucid writer and his many publications remain a lasting monument to his contribution to science. He entitled the first volume of his autobiography Off-beat biologist, which is perhaps a very apt description of this remarkable man.^[2]

Quote:

«Es gibt rund eine Million Tonnen überflüssiger Männer allein in diesem Lande.»^[3]

Literature

Off-beat biologist: the autobiography of Alan S. Parkes., Cambridge, England : Galton Foundation, 1985

References

↑ Adele E. Clarke: Disciplining Reproduction: Modernity, American Life Sciences, and "the Problems of Sex", University of California Press, 1998, p. 74 (Reproductive issues from sex and contraception to abortion and cloning have been controversial for centuries, and scientists who attempted to turn the study of reproduction into a discipline faced an uphill struggle. Adele Clarke's engrossing story of the search for reproductive knowledge across the twentieth century is colorful and fraught with conflict.
Modern scientific study of reproduction, human and animal, began in the United States in an overlapping triad of fields: biology, medicine, and agriculture. Clarke traces the complicated paths through which physiological approaches to reproduction led to endocrinological approaches, creating along the way new technoscientific products from contraceptives to hormone therapies to new modes of assisted conception--for both humans and animals. She focuses on the changing relations and often uneasy collaborations among scientists and the key social worlds most interested in their work--major philanthropists and a wide array of feminist and medical birth control and eugenics advocates--and recounts vividly how the reproductive sciences slowly acquired standing.
By the 1960s, reproduction was disciplined, and the young and contested scientific enterprise proved remarkably successful at attracting private funding and support. But the controversies continue as women--the targeted consumers--create their own reproductive agendas around the world. Elucidating the deep cultural tensions that have permeated reproductive topics historically and in the present, Disciplining Reproduction gets to the heart of the twentieth century's drive to rationalize reproduction, human and nonhuman, in order to control life itself. Reproductive issues from sex and contraception to abortion and cloning have been controversial for centuries, and scientists who attempted to turn the study of reproduction into a discipline faced an uphill struggle. Adele Clarke's engrossing story of the search for reproductive knowledge across the twentieth century is colorful and fraught with conflict.
Modern scientific study of reproduction, human and animal, began in the United States in an overlapping triad of fields: biology, medicine, and agriculture. Clarke traces the complicated paths through which physiological approaches to reproduction led to endocrinological approaches, creating along the way new technoscientific products from contraceptives to hormone therapies to new modes of assisted conception--for both humans and animals. She focuses on the changing relations and often uneasy collaborations among scientists and the key social worlds most interested in their work--major philanthropists and a wide array of feminist and medical birth control and eugenics advocates--and recounts vividly how the reproductive sciences slowly acquired standing.
By the 1960s, reproduction was disciplined, and the young and contested scientific enterprise proved remarkably successful at attracting private funding and support. But the controversies continue as women--the targeted consumers--create their own reproductive agendas around the world. Elucidating the deep cultural tensions that have permeated reproductive topics historically and in the present, Disciplining Reproduction gets to the heart of the twentieth century's drive to rationalize reproduction, human and nonhuman, in order to control life itself.)
↑ Sir Alan Sterling Parkes: 10 September 1900 - 17 July 1990, [Biogr Mem Fellows R Soc. 2006] - PubMed - NCBI
↑ Alan S. Parkes on the CIBA Symposium from 26th to 30th November 1962 in London; cited from Th. v. Randow: Gespenstische Visionen: Wissenschaftler diskutieren über die Zukunft des Menschen, Die Zeit on 27 September 1963

== External links

Christopher Polge: Sir Alan Sterling Parkes. 10 September 1900 -- 17 July 1990: Elected FRS 1933

[1] Adele E. Clarke: Disciplining Reproduction: Modernity, American Life Sciences, and "the Problems of Sex", University of California Press, 1998, p. 74 (Reproductive issues from sex and contraception to abortion and cloning have been controversial for centuries, and scientists who attempted to turn the study of reproduction into a discipline faced an uphill struggle. Adele Clarke's engrossing story of the search for reproductive knowledge across the twentieth century is colorful and fraught with conflict.
Modern scientific study of reproduction, human and animal, began in the United States in an overlapping triad of fields: biology, medicine, and agriculture. Clarke traces the complicated paths through which physiological approaches to reproduction led to endocrinological approaches, creating along the way new technoscientific products from contraceptives to hormone therapies to new modes of assisted conception--for both humans and animals. She focuses on the changing relations and often uneasy collaborations among scientists and the key social worlds most interested in their work--major philanthropists and a wide array of feminist and medical birth control and eugenics advocates--and recounts vividly how the reproductive sciences slowly acquired standing.
By the 1960s, reproduction was disciplined, and the young and contested scientific enterprise proved remarkably successful at attracting private funding and support. But the controversies continue as women--the targeted consumers--create their own reproductive agendas around the world. Elucidating the deep cultural tensions that have permeated reproductive topics historically and in the present, Disciplining Reproduction gets to the heart of the twentieth century's drive to rationalize reproduction, human and nonhuman, in order to control life itself. Reproductive issues from sex and contraception to abortion and cloning have been controversial for centuries, and scientists who attempted to turn the study of reproduction into a discipline faced an uphill struggle. Adele Clarke's engrossing story of the search for reproductive knowledge across the twentieth century is colorful and fraught with conflict.
Modern scientific study of reproduction, human and animal, began in the United States in an overlapping triad of fields: biology, medicine, and agriculture. Clarke traces the complicated paths through which physiological approaches to reproduction led to endocrinological approaches, creating along the way new technoscientific products from contraceptives to hormone therapies to new modes of assisted conception--for both humans and animals. She focuses on the changing relations and often uneasy collaborations among scientists and the key social worlds most interested in their work--major philanthropists and a wide array of feminist and medical birth control and eugenics advocates--and recounts vividly how the reproductive sciences slowly acquired standing.
By the 1960s, reproduction was disciplined, and the young and contested scientific enterprise proved remarkably successful at attracting private funding and support. But the controversies continue as women--the targeted consumers--create their own reproductive agendas around the world. Elucidating the deep cultural tensions that have permeated reproductive topics historically and in the present, Disciplining Reproduction gets to the heart of the twentieth century's drive to rationalize reproduction, human and nonhuman, in order to control life itself.)

[2] Sir Alan Sterling Parkes: 10 September 1900 - 17 July 1990, [Biogr Mem Fellows R Soc. 2006] - PubMed - NCBI

[3] Alan S. Parkes on the CIBA Symposium from 26th to 30th November 1962 in London; cited from Th. v. Randow: Gespenstische Visionen: Wissenschaftler diskutieren über die Zukunft des Menschen, Die Zeit on 27 September 1963

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Alan S. Parkes

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