William Francis Ganong (physiologist)

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William Francis Ganong (July 6, 1924^[1] – December 23, 2007^[2]) was a Harvard-educated American physiologist, and was one of the first scientists to trace how the brain controls important internal functions of the body. He was born in Northampton, Massachusetts. A neuroendocrinologist, he was the Lange Professor of Physiology Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco^[3] and served as the 50th president of The American Physiological Society, from 1977 to 1978^[4]. In the course of his research, he discovered that blood pressure and fluid balance — the salt and water levels in the body — are regulated by hormones from the adrenal gland and the kidney, a key finding for developing ways to treat hypertension. He was also one of the discoverers of Lown-Ganong-Levine syndrome, an electrical abnormality that affects heart rhythm.

He died in Albany, California.

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