Portal:Space exploration/Biography/Week 50 2007
Dr. Hubertus Strughold (no image available) (1898-1987) was born in Westphalia, Germany. He was educated at Göttingen and received a doctorate in 1922. He is the author of over 180 papers in the field of space medicine. Strughold was brought to the United States at the end of World War II as part of Operation Paperclip and subsequently played an important role in developing the pressure suit worn by early American astronauts.
As the head of Nazi Germany's Air Force Institute for Aviation Medicine, Strughold participated in a 1942 conference that discussed "experiments" on human beings carried out by the institute. The experiments included subjecting Dachau inmates to torture and death by being immersed in water, placed in air pressure chambers, forced to drink sea water and exposed to freezing temperatures. Strughold denied approving the experiments and said he learned of them only after World War II.