UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #710
PASSANO, LEONARD M.

PASSANO, Leonard M. (1924- )
Professor of Zoology
At UW: 1964-1995

Interviewed: 2004-2005	
Interviewer: Self-interview, Barry Teicher

Length: 2 hours, 27 minuets
		
Childhood and family background; education; undergraduate education at Harvard; graduate study at Yale University; Army service during World War II; postdoc at Cambridge University; Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships; zoology research; UW Zoology Department facilities; Faculty governance; University Library Committee; Teaching assistants; Research; Teaching; Graduate students.

First Interview Session (April 6, 2004): Tape 1

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:22	Leonard Passano was born on Staten Island, NY, in 1924, the oldest of five children.  He discusses his family background, including his parents' education and careers.  

00:03:58	LP talks about his schooling at the Staten Island Academy and the influence of a particular science teacher.

00:05:20	LP attended Harvard from 1942-43 until he was drafted into the Army and sent to Louisiana State University.  He mentions his participation in the Battle of the Bulge and Battle of the Rhine during World War II.  After the conclusion of the war, LP attended the army university in Biarritz, France, where he served as a teaching assistant in biology.

00:08:45	LP resumed his studies at Harvard and graduated in 1948, whereupon he attended Yale University for graduate study.

00:09:30	LP became interested in biology because of the influence of his high school teacher and his family's interest in sea life.  As an undergraduate, he was involved in Harvard's radio station and the Harvard Liberal Union.

00:12:00	LP credits his teachers at Biarritz with directing him away from medicine and toward studying biology.  He eventually decided to pursue a doctorate in zoology.  LP wrote an undergraduate honors thesis on crab molting and conducted research at Solomon's Island, Maryland, on hormonal manipulation in crab fisheries.

00:14:15	LP talks about graduate study at Yale and doctoral research at Lerner Marine Laboratory in the Bahamas, where he investigated endocrine control of molting in crabs and the concept of neuro-secretion.  

00:17:08	LP received his PhD in 1952 and was awarded a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship to travel to Cambridge University and study with Dr. Carl Pantin.  He relates his work at the zoological station at Naples and his collaboration with Pantin on research on sea anemones.  LP and Pantin maintained a laboratory in Plymouth, England.

00:20:40	LP was hired by the University of Washington Zoology Department in 1953.  His research was conducted at Friday Harbor Laboratory in Puget Sound.

00:22:33	LP returned to teach at Yale in 1955-56.  He traveled to the University College of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica on a Fulbright Fellowship to study coelenterate neurobiology.  In 1963 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to collaborate on a study of electrical activity of epithelial conduction in coelenterates at St. Andrews University, Scotland, and at Villefranche in southern France.

00:26:25	LP recounts his disaffection with intellectual life and tenure proceedings at Yale and his move to the University of Wisconsin zoology department.  R.K. Meyer interviewed him while he was in Nice, France.

00:31:05	LP discusses working with Dr. Talcott Waterman as a graduate student at Yale and his experience as a teaching assistant.  He emphasizes the individualistic nature of research at Yale.

00:33:39	LP found Cambridge University exciting, particularly because he knew Watson and Crick at the time of their revelations about DNA.

00:34:45	LP considers his experience at the University of Washington extremely pleasant.  Upon returning to work at Yale, he found the interactions of faculty not as satisfying as those at Washington.  LP felt alienated from departmental governance at Yale.  He talks about balancing research and teaching at Yale.

00:38:45	LP served as a predoctoral research assistant at the American Museum of Natural History.

00:39:50	LP discusses the zoology department facilities at the University of Wisconsin.  He found the splitting of the department in two different buildings to be a problem.  LP cites strong national and international pressures to divide zoology into molecular biology and "whole-animal" zoology.

00:43:40	LP tried to act as a bridge between the molecular and whole-animal groups within the department.  He continues to discuss the fragmented nature of the department's physical facilities.

00:48:22	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

Blank.

Second Interview Session (April 14, 2005): Tapes 2-3

Tape 2/Side 1

00:00:35	Leonard M. Passano goes by the nickname “Mac.”

00:00:59	LP relates working in a laboratory in Villefranche, France, on a Guggenheim Fellowship.  The University of Wisconsin sent R.K. Meyer to interview LP in France; he also flew to Madison for an interview.

00:05:25	He had hoped to achieve tenure at Yale.

00:06:01	UW hired LP as a comparative physiologist.  Unlike his predecessor, Peter Morrison, LP preferred to teach and allow students to pursue their own research rather than establishing a research institute.

00:09:27	He appreciated opportunities to participate in faculty governance at UW.  LP served as a departmental representative in the faculty senate.  He discusses his chairmanship of the University Library Committee and some of his pet issues, such as scientific publication by the University Press.

00:10:40	LP describes his commitment to serving on the faculty senate.

00:22:02	In 1964, one-third of the zoology department left Birge Hall and went to the new Zoology Research Building.  This split of the department isolated LP from his major intellectual contacts.  Other members of the department were housed in the Molecular Biology Building.  He talks about the division of resources and facilities among these different buildings.

00:29:02	Systemic biologists, comparative physiologists, and ecologists remained in Birge Hall.

00:30:10	When LP left UW in 1995, zoology was still divided between “modern” molecular/genetic biologists and the more traditional animal behaviorialists and ecologists.

00:31:14	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 2

00:31:20	Leonard Passano discusses changes in the zoology department: as biological methods became more molecular, the division between field and laboratory biology grew larger.

00:34:01	He contrasts these divisions with the cohesion of the botany department.

00:35:30	LP relates a story about being at Cambridge University when Watson and Crick cracked the DNA code.  He talks about his friend, J. Murdock Mitchison.

00:43:30	UW appealed to LP because the medical school and agricultural school were both located on campus; therefore zoology could interact with both schools.

00:45:12	He talks about the student protest movement on campus in the 1960s and the Sterling Hall bombing.

00:50:39	He talks about the response of the zoology department to the TA strike and the department’s treatment of teaching assistants.

00:54:00	LP and Marion Meyer collaborated in teaching comparative physiology.

00:56:25	While at Yale, LP conducted research on crustacean molting hormones and behavioral physiology of coelenterates such as jellyfish and polyps.  He continued this research at Madison, where he developed a facility to keep marine animals; he also traveled to Washington to do research.

00:58:00	His students were mostly interested in questions of nervous systems and behavior.

01:01:12	LP describes his laboratory facilities.

01:02:30	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 3/Side 1

01:02:53	Leonard Passano discusses the zoology department’s use of computer technology.

01:09:20	The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded LP’s research for many years, but he did not want to turn his graduate students into mere lab assistants for his personal research.  After grants for his students began to dry up, he decided to shift his attention to teaching.

01:12:11	LP and George Mackie collaborated in their research on coelenterates and epithelial conduction.  He considers this research his most important contribution to the field, especially in detecting and recording electrical signals that are associated with behavioral coordination.

01:16:25	LP discusses his teaching:  collaborative teaching with Marion Meyer, a graduate course in behavioral physiology, and a zoology course for non-majors.

01:21:35	He describes how his teaching evolved over time.

01:25:18	LP describes the vacillations of undergraduate interest in zoology.

01:26:47	He talks about his most notable graduate students.

01:31:35	His female students had to overcome formidable hurdles in pursuing professional careers.

Tape 3/Side 2

01:33:15	Leonard Passano found that teaching became more difficult because he could not keep up with changes in biology–especially genetics.  This difficulty, combined with health problems, influenced him to retire.

01:36:40	He offers some closing comments on his career at the University of Wisconsin.

01:39:09	End of interview.

END