Francis O. Schmitt

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Francis. O. Schmitt

Born	November 23, 1903 St. Louis, Missouri United States
Died	October 3, 1995 Weston, Massachusetts
Citizenship	American
Nationality	American
Fields	Biology
Institutions	MIT
Alma mater	Washington University
Known for	Electron microscopy
Notable awards	Albert Lasker Award (1956), Alsop Award in 1947, and the T. Duckett Jones Award in 1963

Francis O. Schmitt (1903–1995) was an American biologist and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Schmitt received an A.B. in 1924 and a Ph.D. in 1927 from Washington University During a summer research program at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1923, he worked with Haldan Keffer Hartline under the supervision Jacques Loeb and Thomas Hunt Morgan. Schmitt joined the faculty in 1929 and taught zoology until 1941. He collaborated extensively with Arthur H. Compton to develop x-ray diffraction techniques for biological macro-structures like muscles and nerves.

In 1941, Schmitt was recruited by MIT's Karl Compton and Vannevar Bush to lead radically new Department of Biology there that would combine biology, physics, mathematics, and chemistry. Schmitt became an authority on electron microscopy and conducted innovative studies on kidney function, tissue metabolism, and the chemistry, physiology, biochemistry, and electrophysiology of the nerve. He became Institute Professor in 1955 and professor emeritus in 1973. In 1962, Schmitt helped to found the Neurosciences Research Program and served as its chairman from 1962 to 1974. Schmitt was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and a former president of the Electron Microscope Society of America. He was awarded the Albert Lasker Award in 1956, the Alsop Award in 1947, and the T. Duckett Jones Award in 1963.