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35-545: Lawrence Station was established by the Massachusetts State Board of Health, based on the earlier work of scientists William Thompson Sedgwick and Theobald Smith who understood the linkage of water-borne germs to specific diseases. In 1886 the Massachusetts legislature required its Board of Health to adopt water pollution standards, which led to creation of the station under the direction of Hiram Francis Mills ,

70-655: A typhoid epidemic (Salmonella typhi) arose along the Merrimack River , the City of Lawrence began filtration of river water using Mills' slow sand filters, thus becoming the first American city to filter its water for disease prevention. This filtering led to marked reductions in typhoid fever rate and overall death rate in the city. The facility is now part of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) - Division of Environmental Laboratory Sciences. It

105-493: A PhD in biology in 1881. He remained at Hopkins for two years as an associate in biology. In 1883, Sedgwick was appointed to the faculty at MIT. He was promoted to associate professor in 1884 and to full professor in 1891. He became head of what ultimately became known as the Department of Biology at MIT. In 1888, Sedgwick began giving lectures in bacteriology to students in the civil engineering curriculum. His students became

140-502: A vision of the subject in relation to the broader world, an honest method of working to seek the truth and an enthusiasm for service to the profession the public. In 1902, he published the groundbreaking book Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public Health , which was a compilation of his lectures from the courses he taught at MIT and a distillation of his experience working in the field. Sedgwick influenced many practitioners in

175-558: Is considered the APHA's highest honor. Charles-Edward Amory Winslow Charles-Edward Amory Winslow (February 4, 1877 – January 8, 1957) was an American bacteriologist and public health expert who was, according to the Encyclopedia of Public Health , "a seminal figure in public health, not only in his own country, the United States, but in the wider Western world." Winslow

210-501: Is presented to a public health professional that has demonstrated leadership and achievement in practice, research and /or education. The award commemorates Charles-Edward Amory Winslow (1877-1957), a pioneer in public health and medicine, who is credited with founding the second oldest school of public health in the country at Yale University. Among the most widely quoted health leaders during his lifetime, Dr. Winslow believed that equal in weight with scientific ideas about health and disease

245-453: Is responsible for providing technical and laboratory support to all DEP programs. In 2011, a $ 30 million, 13,000 square foot expansion was completed. The new LEED certified addition also houses the state occupational safety laboratory. 42°41′54″N 71°09′56″W  /  42.6983°N 71.1655°W  / 42.6983; -71.1655 William Thompson Sedgwick William Thompson Sedgwick (December 29, 1855 – January 25, 1921)

280-638: The College of the City of New York from 1910 to 1914. He was the youngest charter member of the Society of American Bacteriologists when that organization was founded in 1899. With Samuel Cate Prescott he published the first American textbook on the elements of water bacteriology. In 1915 he founded the Yale Department of Public Health within the Yale Medical School , and he was professor and chairman of

315-525: The Harvard School of Public Health . Beginning in 1888, Sedgwick was appointed as consulting biologist to the Massachusetts State Board of Health. He directed bacteriological research at the Lawrence Experiment Station and sent his brightest engineering students to work there—including George W. Fuller and Allen Hazen . Even though he was not known for his laboratory research studies, he

350-440: The "Father of American Sanitary Engineering". MIT professors William Ripley Nichols , Ellen Swallow Richards , and Thomas Messinger Drown also played important early roles. Allen Hazen and George W. Fuller were in charge of some of the earliest research on sewage treatment and drinking water filtration . At first, the station's main mission was to develop practical methods for treating wastewater. Its task as to determine

385-528: The 1950s was a consultant to the World Health Organization . In 1920, Winslow published a widely-cited definition of public health in Science , describing the field as "the science and the art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical health and efficiency through organized community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control of community infections, the education of

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420-577: The Department until he retired in 1945. (The Department became the Yale School of Public Health after accreditation was introduced in 1947.) During a time dominated by discoveries in bacteriology, he emphasized a broader perspective on causation, adopting a more holistic perspective. The department under his direction was a catalyst for health reform in Connecticut. He was the first director of Yale's J.B. Pierce Laboratory, serving from 1932 to 1957. Winslow

455-775: The New England Water Works Association. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1901 and became vice president of that organization in 1905. In 1906, sixty of his former students gathered to honor Sedgwick at a dinner and symposium in Boston, MA. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1911. A middle school has been named in his honor in West Hartford, CT. In 1909, Yale University conferred upon him

490-595: The Public Health and A Short History of Science . In the book A Pioneer of Public Health the authors include a complete list of Sedgwick's publications. He joined the New England Water Works Association in 1890 and was elected president of that organization in 1905. In 1902, he joined the American Public Health Association and became its president in 1915. He helped found the Society of American Bacteriologists (now American Society for Microbiology ) and

525-486: The effect of filtration as compared to natural oxidation, which it decided by experiments in its chemistry laboratory. During this time, Sedgwick and students invented techniques for identifying and quantitatively analyzing the microorganisms in water and sewage. These studies helped set the standards in Massachusetts , other states, and other countries. A bacteriological laboratory was added two years later. In 1893 when

560-528: The field of public health. Among the best known are Charles-Edward Amory Winslow , Samuel Cate Prescott , and William Lyman Underwood . He played a key role in Prescott's choice to go into bacteriology as a career, and was instrumental in Prescott's selection in the canning research with Underwood in 1895 – 6 that would lead to the growth of food technology . Sedgwick’s courses at MIT and his influence on civil engineering students there can be considered

595-497: The first instructions in the field of public health. However, he and two colleagues felt that a more formal academic structure was needed. In 1913, he joined with George C. Whipple and Milton J. Rosenau to establish the Harvard-MIT School for Public Health Officers. This was the first formal academic program designed to train public health professionals. The joint program lasted until 1922 when Harvard University decided to launch

630-541: The first scientific American epidemiologist.” Sedgwick used the annual report covering the work done in 1891 as a vehicle to publish his epidemiological studies of typhoid fever. “In the Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts for 1892, Sedgwick presented studies on typhoid fever epidemics at Lowell and Lawrence, at Springfield and at Bondsville, which were classics in the field and which make this one of

665-427: The first trial, he testified that the water that was supplied to the city was contaminated with bacteria from sewage discharges in the watershed above the reservoir. In the second trial, Sedgwick disagreed strongly with the proposal by John L. Leal to treat the water from the reservoir with calcium hypochlorite , which was called chloride of lime at that time. Instead, he believed that the construction of sewers in

700-707: The honorary degree of Sc.D. and the University of Cincinnati gave him an honorary LL.D. in 1920. In 1922 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) established the Sedgwick Memorial Lecture in his honor. The inaugural lecture, entitled The Physical Basis of Life , was given by Edmund Beecher Wilson on December 29, 1922. The American Public Health Association established the Sedgwick Memorial Medal in 1929 in his honor, for distinguished service and advancement of public health knowledge and practice. It

735-586: The individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organization of medical and nursing service for the early diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease, and the development of the social machinery which will ensure to every individual in the community a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of health. [...] I look to see our health departments in the coming years organizing diverse forms of sanitary and medical and nursing and social service in such fashion as to enable every citizen to realize his birthright of health and longevity." The C.-E.A. Winslow Award

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770-463: The most outstanding volumes in the history of epidemiology.” At the end of the 19th century, the water supply for Jersey City, New Jersey was contaminated with sewage and the death toll from typhoid fever was high. In 1899, the city contracted with a private company for the construction of a new water supply on the Rockaway River , which included a dam, reservoir and 23-mile pipeline. The project

805-487: The sexes. In a long article in The New York Times , Sedgwick stated his views plainly. He believed that women’s suffrage and feminism "...   would mean a degeneration and degradation of human fibre which would turn back the hands of time a thousand years." Sedgwick was a prolific writer who published several hundred papers and other writings. His two most influential books were Principles of Sanitary Science and

840-433: The spokesmen and practitioners who brought the principles of public health into the practice of engineering beginning in the 1890s and lasting well into the 20th century. While he has been hailed as the first scientific American epidemiologist, Sedgwick was also described as not having a mathematical mind. He taught ideas and principles to his students. He instilled in his students the need to develop three basic behaviors:

875-483: The watershed and a sewage disposal plant would be the preferable course of action. He also testified that chlorination did not remove organic matter, particulates and other filth, which could weaken the vital resistance of water consumers. However, the chlorination system was found to be safe, effective and reliable by the Special Master, William J. Magie , and was judged capable of supplying Jersey City with water that

910-600: Was "pure and wholesome." Sedgwick lived his entire life in New England . He married Mary Katrine Rice of New Haven, Connecticut, on December 29, 1881. They had no children. Sedgwick was a supporter of many causes that furthered the betterment of the public, and he volunteered his time for numerous charitable institutions, including his position of curator of the Lowell Institute beginning in 1897. However, he opposed women’s suffrage and anything that smacked of equality of

945-605: Was a commitment to social justice – that social ills must be the first conquest in the "conquest of epidemic disease.” C.-E.A Winslow Award Recipients (1955-2015) In 1896, he translated, from German, «  Heimat  », a play in four acts by Hermann Sudermann , renamed « Magda » and played by Henry Stephenson and Charles Waldron in a Broadway theatre production in New York City , New York . Winslow wrote nearly 600 articles and books on bacteriology, public health, sanitation, and health care administration. Among

980-502: Was a teacher, epidemiologist, bacteriologist, and a key figure in shaping public health in the United States . He was president of many scientific and professional organizations during his lifetime, including president of the American Public Health Association in 1915. He was one of three founders of the joint MIT-Harvard School of Public Health in 1913. William T. Sedgwick was born on December 29, 1855, in West Hartford, Connecticut. He

1015-684: Was also instrumental in founding the Yale School of Nursing . He was the first Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Bacteriology , serving in that position from 1916 to 1944. He was also the editor of the American Journal of Public Health from 1944 to 1954. He was the curator of public health at the American Museum of Natural History from 1910 to 1922. In 1926 he became president of the American Public Health Association , and in

1050-610: Was born in Boston, Massachusetts and attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), obtaining a B.S. in 1898 and an M.S. in 1910. He began his career as a bacteriologist. He met Anne Fuller Rogers when they were students in William T. Sedgwick 's laboratory at M.I.T., and married her in 1907. He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while heading the sewage experiment station from 1908 to 1910, then taught at

1085-532: Was chosen as president in 1900. He was also president of the American Society of Naturalists in 1900. Sedgwick became a member of the Advisory Committee of the U.S. Public Health Service in 1902 and was involved in the adoption of the first national standards on drinking water quality—elimination of the common cup in 1912 and bacteriological standards for interstate carriers in 1914. After World War I, he

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1120-594: Was commissioned as Assistant Surgeon General in the reserves of the U.S. Public Health Service. Also, in 1914, Sedgwick was appointed a member of the Massachusetts Public Health Council, which was a component of the State Department of Public Health. He served on the Committee on Sanitary Engineering and he was Chairman of the Committee on Food and Drugs. In 1904, he was made an honorary member of

1155-483: Was completed on May 23, 1904; however, no treatment was provided to the water supply, because the contract did not require it. The city, claiming that the contract provisions were not fulfilled, filed a lawsuit in the Chancery Court of New Jersey. Jersey City officials complained that the water served to the city was not "pure and wholesome." Sedgwick testified as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in both trials. In

1190-415: Was responsible, along with George W. Rafter in 1889, for developing the enumeration procedure and apparatus for examining microscopic organisms in surface water bodies. The Sedgwick-Rafter counting cell is still in use today. The Lawrence Experiment Station annual reports highlighted Sedgwick’s role as an epidemiologist. “In epidemiology, Sedgwick played a more direct and personal role and he was, indeed,

1225-572: Was the son of William Sedgwick and Anne Thompson Sedgwick. In 1877, he received his undergraduate degree from the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University. He studied for two years at the Yale School of Medicine, where he was also an instructor in physiological chemistry (1878–1879). He left Yale to take up studies at Johns Hopkins University in physiology. He became interested in biology and changed his course of study graduating with

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