Irvine Page

Who was Irvine Page?

Irvine Heinly Page was born in Indianapolis, Indiana and was an American physiologist who played an important part in the field of hypertension for almost 60 years.

His first contributions were published in the early 1930s and his most recent, "Hypertension Research: A Memoir : 1920-1960", in 1988. He is perhaps best known for the co-discovery of serotonin in 1948, although his pre-eminence is a matter of record in four other areas: the renin-angiotensin system, the mosaic theory of hypertension, treatment of hypertension and public and professional advocacy of the recognition of this condition and its effects in daily life. In earlier work he published on the neurochemistry of the brain.

Page received many honors for his work. He was on the cover of Time magazine's October 31, 1955 issue. He was president of the American Heart Association; he received ten honorary degrees and a number of prestigious awards—the Ida B. Gould Memorial Award of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; Albert Lasker Award; Gairdner Foundation Award; Distinguished Award of the American Medical Association; Oscar B. Hunter Award; Passano Foundation Award; and the Stouffer Prize for Hypertension Research in 1970. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1971 and published his memoirs in 1988.