Community Briefs

Thursday, March 13, 1997Harbor-UCLA physician Walter Martin dies
at 84

Walter Martin, whose career as a physican, educator and pioneer
in medical research spanned seven decades, died at the age of 84 on
March 6.

A clinical professor of medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine
who also served as president of the L.A. County Academy of Medicine
and the California Society of Internal Medicine, Martin was a
native of Los Angeles and was instrumental in founding the
Harbor-UCLA Research and Education Institute (REI) in Torrance.

In 1987, REI recognized Martin’s contributions to medical
research and world health by naming its first multi-story research
building the Walter P. Martin Research Center. The Martin Center
houses the UCLA Male Reproductive Center, the National Institute of
Health-funded Clinical Study Center and the Perinatal Research
Center.

"Walter Martin is known as the father of REI," said Frank
DeSantis, president of REI. "He was a true visionary, who saw the
potential for an organization that would incorporate medical
research, outstanding education through the UCLA School of Medicine
and the excellent clinical resources at Harbor. Under his
leadership, REI grew from a small cluster of laboratories with only
a few thousand dollars in research grants to an internationally
recognized and acclaimed research center.

"Even more importantly, Dr. Martin was a mentor and source of
inspiration for thousands of physicians. As a clinical faculty
member at Harbor-UCLA, he volunteered his time to teach medical
students, interns and residents, and taught them that compassion is
the most important part of medicine. He leaves a legacy that few
people will ever match," DeSantis said.

Martin attended UCLA and St. Louis University, receiving his
medical degree from St. Louis in 1937.

Donations in Martin’s memory may be made to the Harbor-UCLA
Research and Education Institute, 1124 W. Carson St., in Torrance,
CA, 90502.

NASA findings vindicate scientist

Gil Levin, a NASA scientist who was largely ignored two decades
ago when he pointed to evidence of life on Mars, told students in a
UC Berkeley campus seminar Monday that recent discoveries lend
credibility to his claims.

Levin said that the headline-making discovery of a Martian
meteorite in Antarctica last year ­ complete with organic
remains that provided further evidence of life on the red planet
­ also proves that his opposite-minded colleagues at NASA
reached "poor conclusions" when analyzing soil from Mars
probes.

Twenty years ago, Levin was one of three men in charge of
testing soil samples on board the two Viking probes that landed on
Mars during the 1960s and ’70s. Levin became the only member of the
trio to stand behind preliminary results, which indicated that
there had once been life on the planet.

The other two members stood behind later tests, which found no
evidence of life. NASA supported their claim that there was never
life on Mars, but when Levin ran tests on Martian soil, he found
evidence of life .

To confirm the tests were not flukes, he heated the soil to 320
degrees Celsius, a temperature hot enough to kill any organisms,
and then tested it again for evidence of life forms. The tests
found no evidence of life forms. Levin was satisfied that he had
found scientific evidence of life on Mars and wanted to make his
results public.

But, NASA backed away from Levin’s findings, scared by
subsequent tests conducted by the remaining two scientists that
concluded that no organic material was present on Mars’
surface.

NASA scientists recently discovered organic compounds inside
pieces of Martian meteorites that crashed into Antarctica thousands
of years ago. The scientists said the compounds were evidence of
life in the planet’s distant past.

Some students who attended Monday’s lecture came out impressed
with Levin’s scientific coup. "He’s hailed as the one who knew all
along, and recently it’s all being confirmed," said junior Travis
Ligget.

Compiled from staff and wire reports