William Francis Thompson (1888–1965) and His Pioneering Studies of the Pacific Halibut, Hippoglossus stenolepis

William Francis Thompson (1888–1965), as a temporary employee of the British Columbia Provincial Fisheries Department, was assigned in 1914 to under-take full-time studies of the Pacific halibut, Hippoglossus stenolepis. The fishery was showing signs of depletion, so Thompson undertook the inquiry into this resource, the first intensive study on the Pacific halibut. Three years later, Thompson, working alone, had provided a basic foundation of knowledge for the subsequent management of this resource. He published seven land-mark papers on this species, and this work marked the first phase of a career in fisheries science that was to last nearly 50 years

John Nathan Cobb (1868–1930): Founding Director of the College of Fisheries, University of Washington, Seattle

John Nathan Cobb (1868–1930) became the founding Director of the College of Fisheries, University of Washington, Seattle, in 1919 without the benefit of a college education. An inquisitive and ambitious man, he began his career in the newspaper business and was introduced to commercial fisheries when he joined the U.S. Fish Commission (USFC) in 1895 as a clerk, and he was soon promoted to a “Field Agent” in the Division of Statistics, Washington, D.C. During the next 17 years, Cobb surveyed commercial fisheries from Maine to Florida, Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska for the USFC and its successor, the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. In 1913, he became editor of the prominent west coast trade magazine, Pacific Fisherman, of Seattle, Wash., where he became known as a leading expert on the fisheries of the Pacific Northwest. He soon joined the campaign, led by his employer, to establish the nation’s first fisheries school at the University of Washington. After a brief interlude (1917–1918) with the Alaska Packers Association in San Francisco, Calif., he was chosen as the School’s founding director in 1919. Reflecting his experience and mindset, as well as the University’s apparent initial desire, Cobb established the College of Fisheries primarily as a training ground for those interested in applied aspects of the commercial fishing industry. Cobb attracted sufficient students, was a vigorous spokesman for the College, and had ambitions plans for expansion of the school’s faculty and facilities. He became aware that the College was not held in high esteem by his faculty colleagues or by the University administration because of the school’s failure to emphasize scholastic achievement, and he attempted to correct this deficiency. Cobb became ill with heart problems in 1929 and died on 13 January 1930. The University soon thereafter dissolved the College and dismissed all but one of its faculty. A Department of Fisheries, in the College of Science, was then established in 1930 and was led by William Francis Thompson (1888–1965), who emphasized basic science and fishery biology. The latter format continues to the present in the Department’s successor, The School of Aquatic Fisheries and Science

Charles H. Gilbert, Pioneer Ichthyologist and Fishery Biologist

Charles Henry Gilbert (Fig. 1) was a pioneer ichthyologist and, later, fishery biologist of particular significance to natural history of the western United States. Born in Rockford, Illinois on 5 December 1859, he spent his early years in Indianapolis, Indiana, where, in 1874, he came under the influence of his high school teacher, David Starr Jordan (1851-1931). Gilbert graduated from high school in 1875, and when Jordan became a professor of natural history at Butler University in Irvington, Indiana, Gilbert followed, and received his B.A. degree in 1879. Jordan moved to Indiana University, in Bloomington, in the fall of 1879, and Gilbert again followed, earning his M.S. degree in 1882 and his Ph.D. in 1883 in zoology. His doctorate was the first ever awarded by Indiana University

The Electrodeposition of Copper-Cobalt Alloys

An attempt was made to deposit a 50:50 copper-cobalt alloy from various sulfate electrolytes. No true 50:50 alloy was obtained but various mixtures of cobalt and copper rich crystals were deposited

Integrated microcantilever fluid sensor as a blood coagulometer

The work presented concerns the improvement in mechanical to thermal signal of a microcantilever fluid probe for monitoring patient prothrombin time (PT) and international normalized ratio (INR) based on the physical measurement of the clotting cascade. The current device overcomes hydrodynamic damping limitations by providing an internal thermal actuation force and is realised as a disposable sensor using an integrated piezoresistive deflection measurement. Unfortunately, the piezoresistor is sensitive to thermal changes and in the current design the signal is saturated by the thermal actuation. Overcoming this problem is critical for demonstrating a blood coagulometer and in the wider field as a microsensor capable of simultaneously monitoring rheological and thermal measurements of micro-litre samples. Thermal, electrical, and mechanical testing of a new design indicates a significant reduction in the thermal crosstalk and has led to a breakthrough in distinguishing the mechanical signal when operated in moderately viscous fluids (2-3 cP). A clinical evaluation has been conducted at The Royal London Hospital to measure the accuracy and precision of the improved microcantilever fluid probe. The correlation against the standard laboratory analyser INR, from a wide range of patient clotting times(INR 0.9-6.08) is equal to 0.987 (n=87) and precision of the device measured as the percentage coefficient of variation, excluding patient samples tested < 3 times, is equal to 4.00% (n=64). The accuracy and precision is comparable to that of currently available point-of-care PT/INR devices. The response of the fluid probe in glycerol solutions indicates the potential for simultaneous measurement of rheological and thermal properties though further work is required to establish the accuracy and range of the device as a MEMS based viscometer