Mechanisms coupling the absorption of solutes and water in the proximal nephron

In 1978, the many friends and admirers of Professor Robert Pitts established a fund to honor the memory of that distinguished physiologist. Subsequently, upon recommendation of its Renal Commission, with Klaus Thurau as chairman, the Council of the International Union of Physiological Sciences founded the Robert F. Pitts Lecture series, which is to be held every 3 years at the time and place of the Union's international congress. The lecturer is to be chosen by members of the Renal Commission and the Chairman of Physiology at Cornell University Medical College (ex officio). The first Lectureship was awarded to Professor Rolf Kinne, who delivered the lecture at the XXVIIIth Congress in Budapest in 1980. Dr. Pitts was the “total” physiologist: investigator, teacher, and writer. He was justly famous for his precise experiments, based on impeccable logic, executed with precision, and reported succinctly. He was also a renowned teacher and the author of a renal physiology textbook, which set the standard in that field. Medical students at Cornell vividly recall Dr. Pitts' extensive, personal role in teaching the Medical Physiology course. Despite his enormous interest and productivity in research, he always seemed to choose teaching as his first professional obligation. He spent endless hours in lectures and conferences, appearing to relish the opportunity for animated discussions with small groups of students during teaching laboratories. For Robert Pitts, science had no national boundaries; his laboratory and department were filled with representatives from all corners of the globe, and his tutelage spawned professorships in numerous countries. It is singularly fitting, therefore, that the lectures in his memory should be held at international meetings. Dr. James A. Schafer, the second Robert F. Pitts Lecturer, presented the following lecture in Sydney, Australia, August 29, 1983, Dr. Schafer completed his doctoral work under Dr. John A. Jacquez at the University of Michigan. He extended that work with a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Erich Heinz, and then with a long and fruitful association with Dr. Thomas Andreoli, first at Duke University and since 1970, at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Using that ingenious preparation of isolated, perfused tubular segments, Dr. Schafer and his associates have made important contributions to our understanding of the epithelial transport of solutes and water. Like Dr. Pitts, Dr. Schafer is a gifted teacher who