Harvard Medical School. Department of Pharmacology records

The Department of Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School was created in 1902, having originated in the Department of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. Reid Hunt (1870-1948) arrived at Harvard in 1913 and served as Professor of Pharmacology and head of the Department of Pharmacology until 1936. Otto Krayer (1899-1982) first came to Harvard Medical School in 1936, as the representative of American University Beirut to Harvard University’s tercentenary celebration. He stayed on at Harvard Medical School that fall as a visiting lecturer in pharmacology and in 1937 was appointed Associate Professor of Pharmacology. In 1939 he became Associate Professor of Comparative Pharmacology and Head of the Department of Pharmacology.

As head of the department, Krayer was known for emphasizing collaboration among his staff and maintaining a balance between the department’s teaching and research functions. He also recognized the importance of incorporating other fields - biochemistry, physiology, psychology – into pharmacological research, in order to study the full range of effects. Krayer’s primary research focus during his tenure was cardiac pharmacology and veratrum alkaloids, and he was noted for his skill in using the Starling heart-lung preparation. Additionally, influenced by B. F. Skinner, Krayer and department member P. B. Dews explored the behavioral effects of drugs and helped to legitimize it as a field of study within pharmacology.

While at Harvard Medical School, Krayer was successful in developing talent in the department. Seventeen staff members went on to head academic and administrative departments, including twelve in pharmacology. Krayer also led the recruitment of neurobiologist Stephen Kuffler (1913-1980) to Harvard Medical School. In 1959 Kuffler and his laboratory became part of the Department of Pharmacology, and after Krayer’s retirement in 1966, the Department of Neurobiology was created, with Kuffler as its head. Two members of Kuffler’s laboratory, David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel, went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1981. At the time of Krayer’s retirement in 1966, the department was ranked first in the country by the American Council on Education. However, due to a shift in focus by the administration at the medical school, the department declined after Krayer's departure as preference was given to the field of molecular biology.