Two New Professorships Created with Hanish Estate Funds
One of the new professorships will be has been designated the Shaler Arthur Hanisch Professorship, and has already been awarded to Caltech mathematics professor Michael Aschbacher. The second will be the Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial Professorship, which will go to a Caltech biochemist in honor of Hanisch's parents.
Hanisch was a member of the distinguished Pasadena family that formed an early association with Caltech professor Henry Borsook, who pioneered vitamin research and helped develop the first table of Recommended Daily Allowances. Hanisch's father, Arthur Hanisch, formed the Stuart Company in 1941 after acquiring the rights to a liquid vitamin product that Borsook had developed.
After introducing the multivitamin formula that became known as Calplex and later as the Stuart Formula Liquid, the elder Hanisch went on to introduce Mylanta, the first antacid to use silicone to relieve gaseous distention. The company also marketed pharmaceutical products such as analgesics, tranquilizers, hematinics to relieve anemia, treatments for urinary tract infections, and prenatal nutrition supplements.
Arthur Hanisch had a wide-ranging interest in medical and nutrition research that went beyond his pharmaceutical business and included the development of synthetic-fiber arteries. As a result of his interest in and contributions to vascular research, Hanisch was appointed to President Johnson's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke, and to the advisory council of the Heart Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
The company was acquired by Atlas Chemical Industries in 1961. In 1971 Imperial Chemical Industries of Great Britain, seeking a pharmaceutical position in the American market, purchased Atlas to obtain the Stuart Division. ICI thereafter separated the pharmaceutical division into Zeneca, a new corporate entity. Although the Stuart Formula Liquid was discontinued in 1980, other Stuart products are still on the market.
Shaler Hanisch in 1975 established the trust that made the two Caltech professorships possible. Although not a Caltech alumnus, Hanisch maintained a lifelong interest in science and closely followed advances in medicine, physics, and electronics.
The trust conferred to two men the authority to select the non-profit beneficiary: Emrys Ross, the family attorney; and Joseph Galindo, a former Stuart Company executive and family friend. In making the selection, Ross and Galindo consulted with Shaler's brother Stuart (for whom the company and vitamin formula were originally named).
"Mr. Galindo and I felt that Caltech was a natural choice because the Hanisch family had lived in Pasadena for more than 60 years," said Ross, a life member of the Caltech Associates and a member of the President's Circle. Ross added that the Hanisch family had always held Caltech in high regard and owed a debt of gratitude to Borsook for his early work on nutrition.
Dr. Tom Everhart, the president of Caltech, said that the professorships "are fitting reminders of the Hanisch family's relationship to Caltech through Henry Borsook many years ago."
"Caltech greatly appreciates both of these generous gifts," Everhart said.
Dr. Michael Aschbacher, who has been named the first holder of the Shaler Hanisch Memorial Professorship, is an expert in mathematical group theory. His special interest is finite simple groups, the basic building blocks of mathematics which has applications in the transmission and storage of data as well as the study of crystals.
The first holder of the Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial Professorship will be announced at a future date.
Contact: Robert Tindol (818) 395-3631 tindol@caltech.edu
