RADIATION RESEARCH 16, 617-625 (1962)

Obituary

ioacctlbno IFailla 1891-1961

It is with the deepest regret that we note the death of Dr. Gioacchino Failla, one of the founders of our Society and a former president.

Dr. Failla's contributions in the field of radiation research are forever indelibly recorded and for these he has earned from his colleagues the highest esteem and admiration. All of us are keenly aware of the impact that his work and his influence left upon science in general and more particularly in the investigative areas dealing with ionizing radiation.

It is here appropriate to note that during his exemplary career a number of honors were bestowed upon him which accentuate the distinction and high regard with which he was held by the scientific world. He was an honorary member of the British Institute of Radiology, The James Ewing Society and the Radiological Society of North America. He was awarded the Pulitzer Scholarship, The Leonard Prize of the American Roentgen Ray Society, the Janeway Medal of the American Radium Society, The Caldwell Medal of the American Roentgen Ray Society, The Gold Medal of the Radiological Society of North America, The Ewing Society Medal, the American Cancer Society Annual National Award, and the Judd Can- cer Award. He received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Rochester.

The Radiation Research Society hereby marks the passing of a great leader and a fine person who commanded the respect and held the affection of all. The following obituary by a former student and close associate gives the highlights of the career of our beloved colleague.

HYMER L. FRIEDELL, President

Gioacchino Failla, a founder and past president of the Radiation Research So- ciety, died instantly on December 15, 1961 in an automobile collision in the vicinity of the Argonne Laboratory, not far from Chicago. Born in Sicily in 1891 he came to the United States in 1906. He attended the Stuyvesant High School of New York from which he graduated in 1910. In that year he won one of the coveted Pulitzer Scholarships and enrolled in the Engineering School of Columbia University from which he graduated with an E.E. degree in 1915.

619

Radiation Research Societyis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to

Radiation Researchwww.jstor.org

®

.. . . . ..

.... .tn ...f...i...... a

. .. . .......

OBITUARY

As a result of a part-time job at New York's Memorial Hospital offered to him at that time by the late Dr. Henry H. Janeway, he developed a keen interest in the physical properties and the clinical applications of radium and X-rays.

He obtained the M.A. degree in Physics from Columbia University in 1917 and the Doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1923 under Madame Curie, J. Perrin and Debierne. He served during the intervening World War I as assistant to the scien- tific attach6 of the American Embassy in Rome. His association with Memorial Hospital, where he became attending Physicist and later Director of the Physics and Biophysics laboratory for radiation research, lasted until the end of 1942. Thence he became Professor of Radiology (Physics) and Director of Radiological Research Laboratory at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia. He retired from the University in the summer of 1960 and joined the Radiological Physics Division of the Argonne National Laboratory as Senior Scientist Emeritus.

His manifold activities, covering forty-five years of professional life provide abundant testimony to the stability and depth of his interest in the radiological sciences, for he never strayed from the field to which he dedicated his earliest efforts. These took form in facilitating the clinical application of radiation and in defining the scientific basis of radiotherapy of cancer. Thus from the beginning his con- tributions were dedicated to the analysis and evaluation of not only physical fac- tors affecting tissue dosage but also of those intrinsic to the biological system. Among his technical contributions to radiation therapy, the automatic radon pump and the gold filtered radon implant (radon seeds) gained wide acceptance in the U.S.A. and other nations of the American continent. Aided by his engineering training, he always took delight in the design of numerous accessories to therapeu- tic apparatus of which we might recall two. The first one is the liquid-filled ob- servation window for radiation therapy treatment rooms which is now an essential part of "hot cells" in modern radiochemical laboratories. The other is the "bubble" diaphragm for megavolt X-ray which permitted the exit of beams of radiation of different shapes by the insertion of relatively light hollow truncated cones or pyra- mids within a protecting pool of mercury encasing the anode of the X-ray tube. Many of his scientific publications are devoted to the measurement of absorbed dose, often as a prerequisite to radiobiological or radiotherapeutic reports published by various members of his laboratory staff. Here his versatility and originality found expression in the design, and often in the actual construction, of dozens of types of ionization chambers among which the extrapolation, mesh, tissue equiva- lent and wall-less types are the best known to students of radiation dosimetry. After the international adoption of the rad he devoted and directed activities oriented to the precise determination of the constants W and p necessary to its evaluation by the ionization method. As a result the data from the Columbia Lab- oratory rank among the most accurate on record.

Far less known is his early interest in what today is called radiobiology: his

620

OBITUARY

debut took place in a paper with K. Sugiura, published in 1922, wherein several long-term observations on irradiated mice and on their non-irradiated progeny were made. Thereafter, with the cooperation of Mrs. E. H. Quimby and members of the clinical staff at Memorial Hospital, and while delving in the immediate needs of radiotherapy, observations on the effects of radiation were pursued in various biological systems. Outstanding were the studies on the threshold erythema of the human skin and the recurring efforts to determine the susceptibility ratio in tissues as a rational approach to radiotherapy. In the late twenties, with the addition of biologists to the research staff of his laboratory, the first non-academic radio- biological laboratory was established in the United States. His interest in radio- biology never wavered nor did his contacts with the field ever relent; as a matter of fact, with the establishment of his summer experimental activities at the Marine Biological Laboratory of Woods Hole they expanded in number and depth. He entered the theoretical side of the field in 1937 by proposing that cell death was due to osmotic swelling following breakdown of giant molecules and suggested several experiments to test his assumptions: these observations have stimulated some interesting research in recent years. More widely known is his relatively recent theory of ageing ascribing this process to the accumulation of somatic mu- tations in the entire organism.

This inadequate summary of the highlights of his seventy published papers compounds the inadequacy of his written work to delineate his true stature as an influential scientist: for Failla avoided printed virtuosity per se, and much pre- ferred the use of intra- and inter-laboratory discussions. These he enlightened with the constructive stimulus of his imagination and he tempered with the sobering criticism of his logic. Thus much of his thought is reflected in hundreds of papers by associates and professional colleagues and, as recognition came to him, in the re- ports of the many committees in which he served. And many they were, from the pioneering Committee on Radiation Units, Standardization and Protection es- tablished within the radiological community to the National and International Commissions on Radiation Protection of today; from the wartime National De- fense Research Committee and the Radiological Instrument Panel of the Armed Forces Special Weapon Project to the Advisory Committee on Isotope Distribu- tions, the Advisory Committee on Biology and Medicine of the USAEC and the Genetics Committee, National Academy of Science Committee on Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation.

This wealth of commitments in the public service did not prevent his resolve to lay the foundations of the Radiation Research Society and to serve it as Chairman of the Organizing Committee, as member of the Council, President, and as the member of the Executive Committee who virtually made possible this journal. The objectives of these efforts are written in the Editorial of the first number of Radiation Research.

621

OBITUARY

He bore extra-curricular responsibilities with equanimity, sometimes with gusto, always grateful and glad to be of service. This characteristic was but an extension of his sincere interest in the welfare of his associates and friends who often con- fided in him and whom he advised and helped in innumerable ways. To this activ- ity he gave his time cheerfully and with unquestioned priority, unaware of the import of his gift and unsuspecting of the cherished image that he was molding in the memory of us all.

L. D. MARINELLI

It is my privilege as Managing Editor of Radiation Research to add this footnote in acknowledgement of the many contributions of Dr. Failla to this Journal. He, probably more than any other person, guided us into the proper area of service and responsibility. His advice and counsel was most important to the Managing Editor and to other members of the Editorial Board in all of the important de- cisions during the formative days of the Journal.

Members of the Society and readers of this article will be interested in knowing that fitting memorials to Dr. Failla have been written by H. H. Rossi in The Amer- ican Journal of Roentgenology and Radium Therapy and Nuclear Medicine 87, 608 (March, 1962); and H. L. Gray in the March issue of the British Journal of Radi- ology. The April issue of Radiology will contain a series of papers given in honor of Dr. Failla's 70th birthday, which symposium was held at the 1962 meeting in Chi- cago November 25-30.

As a further service to those interested in the career of Dr. Failla and the de- velopment of radiation research, we have listed below most of his publications in chronological order.

TITUS C. EVANS, Managing Editor

BIBLIOGRAPHY

FAILLA, G. (1920). Radium technique at the Memorial Hospital. Arch. Radiol. Electrotherapy 25, 3. Reprinted in Radium 16.

FAILLA, G. (1921). The physical basis of radium therapy. Arch. Dermatol. Syphilol. 3, 133. FAILLA, G. (1921). Dosage in radium therapy. Am. J. Roentgenol. 8, 674. FAILLA, G. (1921). The absorption of radium radiations by tissues. Am. J. Roentgenol. 8,

215. KUNZ, G. F., AND FAILLA, G. (1921). Radium-The supreme marvel of nature's storehouse.

Nat. History 21, 520. SUGIURA, K., AND FAILLA, G. (1922). Some effects of radium radiations on white mice. J. Gen.

Physiol. 4, 423. FAILLA, G., QUIMBY, EDITH H., AND DEAN, A. L. (1922). Some problems of radiation ther-

apy. Am. J. Roentgenol. 9, 479. FAILLA, G. (1923). Ionization measurements. Am. J. Roentgenol. 10, 48. FAILLA, G., AND QUIMBY, EDITH H. (1923). The economics of dosimetry in radiotherapy.

Am. J. Roentgenol. 10, 944. FAILLA, G. (1924). A brief analysis of some important factors in the biological action of radia-

tion. Am. J. Roentgenol. 12, 454.

622

OBITUARY 623

FAILLA, G. (1925). An objective method for the administration of X-rays. Acta Radiol. 4, 85. FAILLA, G., ADAIR, F., QUIMBY, EDITH H., SUGIURA, K., ARNELL, J. C., AND GOLDSMITH,

N. W. (1926). Dosage study relative to the therapeutic use of unfiltered radon. Am. J. Roentgeol. 15, 1.

FAILLA, G. (1926). The question of a biological unit of radiation. Acta Radiol. 6, 413. FAILLA, G. (1926). The development of filtered radon implants. Am. J. Roentgenol. 16, 507. FAILLA, G. (1927). Radium at the Memorial Hospital. Sci. Monthly 25, 568. FAILLA, G. (1928). Design of a well-protected radium 'Pack'. Am. J. Roentgenol. 20, 128. FAILLA, G. (1929). Criteria for the design of a standard ionization chamber. Am. J. Roentgenol.

21, 47. FAILLA, G. (1929). The measurement of X-ray dosage by physical means. Radiology 13, 293. FAILLA, G. (1930). Filtration in radium therapy. Radiol. Rev. and Chicago Med. Recorder March,

1930. FAILLA, G. (1930). A new instrument for measuring X-radiation. Radiology 15, 437. FAILLA, G., AND HENSHAW, P. S. (1931). The relative biological effectiveness of X-rays and

gamma rays. Radiology 17, 1. SCHLUNDT, H., AND FAILLA, G. (1931). The detection and estimation of radium in living per-

sons. III. The normal elimination of radium. Am. J. Roentgenol. 26, 265. FAILLA, G. (1932). Radium protection. Radiology 19, 12. FAILLA, G., QUIMBY, EDITH H., MARINELLI, L. D., AND ROSE, J. E. (1933). The relative ef-

fects produced by 200 kv roentgen rays, 700 kv roentgen rays, and gamma rays. I. The distribution of radiation in a water phantom. Am. J. Roentgenol. 29, 293.

FAILLA, G. (1933). The relative effects produced by 200 kv roentgen rays, 700 kv roentgen rays and gamma rays. VII. Correlation of experimental results. Am. J. Roentgenol. 29, 352.

FAILLA, G. (1934). Radiotherapy at 700 kv. Fourth Intern. Congr. of Radiol. 2. FAILLA, G. (1934). Identical physical measurements of the dose in X-ray and radium treat-

ment. Fourth Intern. Congr. of Radiol. 2. FAILLA, G. (1936). Some physical characteristics of 400 kv. Roentgen rays. Fortschr. Gebiete

Rontgenstrahlen 53, 596. FAILLA, G. (1936). Versuch einer neuartigen Therapie mit Uberharten Rontgenstraheln.

Strahlentherapie 56, 594. FAILLA, G., TWOMBLY, G., AND MARINELLI, L. (1937). A method for decreasing the ionization

in the skin applicable to supervoltage X-ray therapy. Radiology 28, 693. FAILLA, G. (1937). A theory of the biological action of ionizing radiations. Publ. Am. Assoc.

Advance. Sci. 4, 202. FAILLA, G., AND MARINELLI, L. D. (1937). The measurement of the ionization produced in air

by gamma rays. Am. J. Roentgenol. 38, 312. FAILLA, G. (1937). The measurement of tissue dose in terms of the same unit for all ionizing

radiations. Radiology 29, 202. FAILLA, G., et al. (1937). Recommendations of the International Committee for Radiological

Units. Radiology 29, 634. FAILLA, G. (1940). Some aspects of the biological action of ionizing radiations. Janeway Lec-

ture, 1939, Am. J. Roentgenol. 44, 649. WHITE, T. N., MARINELLI, L. D., AND FAILLA, G. (1940). A measurement of gamma radiation

in roentgens. Am. J. Roentgenol. 44, 889. FAILLA, G. (1941). Biological effects of ionizing radiations. J. Appl. Phys. 12, 279. EVANS, T. C., SLAUGHTER, J. C., LITTLE, E. P., AND FAILLA, G. (1942). Influence of the medium

on radiation injury of sperm. Radiology 39, 663. FAILLA, G., Ionization and its bearing on the biological effects of radiation. In "Biological

Effects of Radiation," by B. M. Duggar.

FAILLA, G. (1945). Protection against high energy roentgen rays. Caldwell Lecture 1945. Am. J. Roentgenol. Radium Therapy 54, 553.

FAILLA, G. (1946). Biophysical factors in X-ray use. Ind. Standardization 17, 112. FAILLA, G. (1947). Nuclear physics and medical research. Lancet 67, 68. FAILLA, G. (1949). Personnel protection in the use of radioactive isotopes. J. Clin. Invest. 28,

1281. FAILLA, G. (1949). Dosage measurement of ionizing radiations. Conference on Electronic

Inst. in Nucleonics and Med. N. Y. Oct. 31-Nov. 2, p. 1. FAILLA, G., AND Rossi, H. H. (1950). Dosimetry of ionizing particles. Am. J. Roentgenol.

Radium Therapy 64, 489. Rossi, H. H., AND FAILLA, G. (1950). Neutrons: Dosimetry. Med. Phys. 2, 603. FAILLA, G. (1951). Radiological units. Am. J. Roentgenol. Radium Therapy 65, 477. FAILLA, G. (1952). Irradiation through grids. Radiology 58, 424. ELLIS, R. H., JR., Rossi, H. H., AND FAILLA, G. (1952). Stopping power of polystyrene and

acetylene for alpha-particles. Phys. Rev. 86, 562. FAILLA, G. (1954). The influence of the medium on the radiosensitivity of a cell. Acta Radiol.

Suppl. 116, 94. ELLIS, R. H., JR., Rossi, H. H., AND FAILLA, G. (1955). Stopping power of water films. Phys.

Rev. 97, 1043. FAILLA, G. (1955). Address of the retiring President. Radiation Research 2, 192. GROSS, W., WINGATE, C., AND FAILLA, G. (1956). Average energy expended in producing ion

pairs-S-35 absolute value for air. Radiology 66, 101. WINGATE, C., AND FAILLA, G. (1956). Extrapolation chamber measurements with Ni-63 beta

rays. Radiology 66, 270. Rossi, H. H., AND FAILLA, G. (1956). Tissue-equivalent ionization chambers. Nucleonics 14,

32. FAILLA, G. (1956). The flux of secondary ionizing particles in a uniformly irradiated homoge-

neous medium of varying density: Application to walled ionization chambers. Radiation Research 4, 102.

FAILLA, G. (1956). The distribution of energy imparted to a homogeneous medium nonuni- formly irradiated. Radiation Research 5, 205.

FAILLA, G. (1956). Dosimetry of ionizing radiation. "Progress in Nuclear Energy," Series VII, Medical Sciences, Vol. 1, Pergamon Press.

WINGATE, C., GROSS, W., AND FAILLA, G. (1957). Collection of ions produced by alpha par- ticles in air. Phys. Rev. 105, 929.

GROSS, W., WINGATE, C., AND FAILLA, G. (1957). Average energy lost by S-35 beta rays per ion pair produced in air. Radiation Research 7, 570.

FAILLA, G. (1957). Considerations bearing on permissible accumulated radiation doses for occupational exposure. Radiology 69, 23.

GROSS, W., WINGATE, C., AND FAILLA, G. (1957). Determination of disintegration rate for

gamma-emitting isotopes. Radiology 69, 699. FAILLA, G., AND MCCLEMENT, P. (1957). The shortening of life by chronic whole-body irradia-

tion. Am. J. Roentgenol. 78, 946. FAILLA, G. (1958). The aging process and cancerogenesis. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 71, 1124. WINGATE, C., GROSS, W., AND FAILLA, G. (1958). Relative beta-ray energy loss per ion pair

produced in water vapor and in air. Radiation Research 8, 411. GROSS, W., CATOLLA-CAVALCANTI, R., BELL, W. B., AND FAILLA, G. (1958). Experimental de-

termination of the absorbed dose in tissue from X-rays. Radiation Research 9, 124.

624 OBITUARY

OBITUARY 625

FAILLA, G., Chairman, Advisory Committee on Biology and Medicine, AEC 1958. Statement on Radioactive Fallout. Am. Scientist 46, 138.

FAILLA, P., MCCLEMENT, AND FAILLA, G. (1960). Measurement of the dose in small tissue vol- umes surrounding 'point' sources of radioisotopes. Radiation Research 13, 1.

FAILLA, G. (1960). The aging process and somatic mutations. In "The Biology of Aging," Am. Inst. Biol. Sciences, Washington D. C.

FAILLA, G. AND MCCLEMENT FAILLA, P. (1960). Long term effects of radiation. In "Ninth In- ternational Congress of Radiology, Munich 1959." Vol. II, p. 1195. Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany.