John Welsh

John Henry Welsh (August 25, 1901 – November 26, 2002) was an American physiologist who pioneered early work on serotonin as a neurotransmitter in invertebrates. He also studied circadian rhythms, neurosecretion, and neuropharmacology.

Welsh was born August 25, 1901, in Boothbay, Maine. He graduated from Berea College in Kentucky in 1922, followed by a M.A. (1922) and Ph.D. (1928) at Harvard University. Welsh was on the staff of Harvard from 1927 until his retirement in 1970. He was Chairman of the Biology Department from 1947 to 1950, and served important roles at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research during his career. He taught summer courses in invertebrate physiology at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole for nearly 40 years. He was also important in the locating of the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Boothbay, Maine.

Early life Welsh was born in Boothbay, Maine, in 1901, the son of a dairy farmer, and the grandson of a sea captain. Welsh attended Berea College, in Kentucky, attracted by an aunt who was teaching there following missionary work in Africa. Following his degree in 1922, and needing money, he returned to Boothbay as the principal of the high school for a year, started graduate school at Harvard, and then served as science master of the Berkshire School in Sheffield Massachusetts. Other students included Betty M. Twarog, who first described the role of serotonin as a neurotransmitter, Talbot Waterman, a pioneer in underwater animal orientation, and George Camougis, who founded one of the U.S.'s first environmental consulting companies.

Honors Welsh was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1945, and was also a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.