13 Facts About Oscar Riddle

Oscar Riddle is known for his research into the pituitary gland and for isolating the hormone prolactin.

Oscar Riddle taught physiology and biology in Saint Louis, Missouri and Puerto Rico, and he embarked on natural history expeditions to the Orinoco River in South America and Cuba.

Oscar Riddle stayed with the Cold Spring Harbour institution for the rest of his career, until his retirement in 1945.

Oscar Riddle was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1926, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1934, and the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1939.

Oscar Riddle is most remembered for his research into the major pituitary hormone prolactin.

Also around 1932 Oscar Riddle was earliest to show that the prolactin protein induces the secretion of crop milk in pigeons and other birds.

Oscar Riddle was a devout atheist and held the conviction that religion poses a serious threat to scientific advancements.

Oscar Riddle garnered national attention for a speech debunking superstition in 1936.

Oscar Riddle's speech was delivered to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was published in the journal Science and covered by the New York Times.

Oscar Riddle was featured on the cover of Time in January 1939.

In 1958, Oscar Riddle was named the Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association.

Oscar Riddle was president of the American Rationalist Federation in 1959 and 1960.

Oscar Riddle died of prostate cancer at the age of 91 in Plant City, Florida, in 1968.