Research

Weibel’s scientific activities concerned the development of morphometric methods, used in quantitative structure-function correlations, such as the structural foundation of gas exchange in the lung, and in cell biology the membrane system of liver and mitochondria of muscle. This approach was used in broad integrative studies in comparative physiology considering the structural basis of organismic function of the energy pathway from the lung to the muscle cells and their mitochondria, the pathway for oxygen. He discovered the specific organelle of endothelial cells now called Weibel-Palade body.

Career

• since 1994 Professor Emeritus at the University of Bern, Switzerland
• 1984-1985 President at the University of Bern, Switzerland
• 1966-1994 Professor Ordinarius and Director of the Institut for Anatomy at the University of Bern, Switzerland
• 1963-1966 Assistent Professor at the University of Zurich, Switzerland
• 1963 Habilitation at the University of Zurich, Switzerland
• 1959-1963 Research Associate Columbia University and Rockefeller Institute, New York, USA
• 1958-1959 Research Fellow Yale University, USA
• 1956 Ph.D at the University of Zurich, Switzerland
• 1949-1955 Studies of Medicine at the University of Zurich, Switzerland

Functions

• 1997-2001 President of the International Union of Physiological Sciences
• 1997-2000 President of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences
• 1988-1989 President of the Fleischner Society
• 1974-1978 Executive Committee Member of the International Federation of Societies for Electron Microscopy
• 1969-1980 Member, Vice-Chair for Biology and Medicine at the Swiss National Research Council
• 1969-1972 Council Member of the Royal Microscopical Society
• 1969-1972 President of the Union of Swiss Societies for Experimental Biology
• 1967-1971 President of the International Society for Stereology

Honours and Memberships

• 2007 Educational Award, European Respiratory Society
• 2004 Honorary Member, Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences
• 2000 Honorary Member, Swiss Academy of Sciences
• 2000 Honorary Foreign Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1999 Honorary Doctor of Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland
• 1998 Member Academia Europaea
• 1993 Jan Evangelista Purkinje Gold Medal, Prague, Czech Republic
• 1988 Member of the Polska Akademia Nauk, Poland
• 1988 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science, University of Edinburgh, UK
• 1987 Member of Royal Society of Sciences of Uppsala, Sweden
• 1987 Anders Retzius Gold Medal, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
• 1982 College Medalist, American College of Chest Physicians
• 1981 Foreign Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
• 1979 Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society
• 1974 Marcel-Benoist Prize (Swiss Federal Government)