August Krogh life and biography

August Steenberg Krogh (November 15, 1874 – September 13, 1949) was a Danish professor of Romani background at the department of zoophysiology at the University of Copenhagen from 1916-1945. He contributed a number of fundamental discoveries within several fields of physiology, and is famous for developing the Krogh Principle.

August Krogh's research established that blood flow is regulated through capillaries that open and close according to the tissue's need for oxygen. For this, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1920. He also invented an ergometer (for measuring muscle power) and a climate chamber, and helped establish the importance of radioactive isotopes in biological research.

His wife, Marie Krogh, was one of Denmark's first female physicians and an accomplished scientist, and they were frequent collaborators and co-authors on several scientific papers. She was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 1921, a disease which at the time could only be treated with a specialized diet, usually to little effect. They traveled to Toronto and met with John Macleod, who, with his collaborator Frederick G. Banting, had just isolated insulin.

After obtaining Macleod's permission, the Kroghs returned to Copenhagen and set up an insulin manufacturing facility. Within months, Marie Krogh was among thousands of Danish diabetics using insulin, and the disease was not a factor in her death decades later. The insulin factory is now the pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, and August Krogh nominated Macleod and Banting for the Nobel Prize they shared in 1923.

Author of books:
-The Respiratory Exchange of Animals and Man (1916, research)
-The Anatomy and Physiology of Capillaries (1922, research)
-A text-book of human physiology for college students (1932, textbook)
-Osmotic Regulation in Aquatic Animals (1939, research)
-The Comparative Physiology of Respiratory Mechanisms (1941, research)

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