Geoffrey S. Dawes

Prof. Geoffrey Sharman Dawes CBE FRS
Geoffrey Sharman Dawes
Born	(1918-01-21)21 January 1918 Mackworth,Derbyshire
Died	6 May 1996(1996-05-06)(aged 78) Oxford
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Oxford University
Known for	The foremost international authority on fetal and neonatal physiology.
Scientific career
Fields	physiologist
Institutions	Oxford University Charing Cross Hospital John Radcliffe Hospital

Geoffrey Sharman Dawes,CBE,FRS,FRCOG,FRCP,FACOG(Hon),FAAP(Hon) (21 January 1918 – 6 May 1996) was an English physiologist and was considered to be the foremost international authority on fetal and neonatal physiology.

Biography

Dawes was born in 1918 inMackworthwhich is withinDerbyshire,but he was brought up in Elvaston where his father was the vicar ofElvastonandThulston.He had four siblings who were all older than he was.Dawes lived at Thurleston Hall, the vicarage for Elvaston. This hall had previously been the home ofWilliam Darwin Fox.His prep school was in the next village ofShardlow,where he studied until he started atRepton Schoolwhich was still within south Derbyshire. This association with Repton continued as later he would become both a member and later chair of their governors.

AsWorld War IIwas beginning, he gained a place atOxford University,eventually achieving a1stinphysiologyin 1943. Suffering fromasthma,he was considered exempt from conscription, and by 1943 had completed his clinical training.Unable to go into the military, he joinedJ H Burnin the department ofpharmacology,treating the sort of diseases and complaints that soldiers of the front suffered from during World War I, likegas gangreneandnerve gasexposure.When the war ended, he was awarded aRockefellertravelling fellowship, travelling to America to work atHarvard Universityand in Philadelphia. He returned to work in Oxford on aFoulerton Royal Society researchfellowship.

Career

Dawes became the director of the Nuffield Institute for Medical research in Oxford in 1948 only five years after obtaining his degree in medicine,and where he worked for the next 37 years,and setting the Institutes research focus on developmental physiology.

Following his appointment as director Dawes had to decide on an area of research that was worthy of his attention. He decided onfetalphysiologyas he thought at the time that study of fetuses would allow researchers to study simpler version of more complex adult physiology. This was not the case and Dawes himself became a spokesman for the importance and complexity of this stage of physiology.

His initial research was conducted into the distribution and control of fetalcirculation,mostly in unbornlambfetus. He studiedchemoreceptors,the biological mechanism that start the changes in birth. In particular he studied the onset of breathing, for the implications for human physiology, and changes in the pulmonary and systemic circulations.Dawes was one of the first paediatricians to observe that lamb fetus hadsleepcycles as well as breathing cyclesIn utero.Studies also included the responses to stresses such ashypoxiaandhemorrhage.Using this research, he was able to determine and later confirm that human fetus also slept in cycles. This led Dawes to consider the role of the central nervous control, not only in relation to sleep states, but also heart rate variability and responses to the stimulation of chemoreceptors.

Using his research Dawes designed a system of measurement, used in obstetric departments around the world, as the most precise non-invasive way of assessing the well-being of the human fetus.

Dawes was awarded theGairdner Foundation International Awardin 1966 for his outstanding contributions to medical science.He was elected aFellow of the Royal Societyin March 1971.

Dawes was an editor of theBritish Journal of Pharmacologyfor many years. He won theJames Spence Medalin 1969, that is awarded by theRoyal College of Paediatrics and Child Healthfor outstanding contributions to the advancement or clarification of paediatric knowledge, theVirginia Apgar awardof theAmerican Academy of Paediatrics,theOsler Memorial MedalofOxford Universityand many more.

Dawes retired in 1985 and took up the post of director of Sunley Research Centre atCharing Cross Hospital,where he worked on both the computerisation of fetal heart rates and on molecular biology.The Nuffield Institute of Medical research which he had directed became part of the Institute of Molecular Medicine, when Dawes finally retired in 1989.

Upon retirement, and still fully fit with an acute mind, he was recruited as first director of the Sunley Research Centre atCharing Cross Hospital.A keen entertainer with his wife Margaret with two sons and two daughters,he died in Oxford in 1996.

Publications

• Fetal and Neonatal Physiology(1968)

Awards and honours

• 1963 Max Weinstein Award, USA.
• 1966 Gairdner Foundation Award, Canada.
• 1969James Spence MedalBritish Paediatric Association.Fellow,Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
• 1971 Fellow,Royal Society,London.
• 1972 Fellow,Royal College of Physicians.
• 1974 Fellow,American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
• 1976 Fellow,American Academy of Pediatrics.
• 1981 C.B.E.
• 1981 Blair Bell Gold Medal,Royal Society of Medicine.
• 1982 Honorary DMed University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
• 1990 Osler Memorial Medal, Oxford University.

The Geoffrey Dawes lecture is given annually and organised by theFetal and Neonatal Physiological Society.