Dr.William Andrew Horsley Gantt (1892 inWingina, Virginia – 1980) was an American physiologist and psychologist. He received aB.S. from theUniversity of North Carolina and amedical degree fromUniversity of Virginia. In 1922, while doing amedical residency at University Hospital inBaltimore,Maryland, he took a leave of absence to join theAmerican Relief Administration. From 1922-1923 he was Chief at thePetrograd unit inRussia and studied the effect offamine on health. At this time he metIvan Pavlov. In 1925, he later returned to Petrograd to study under Pavlov at the Institute of Experimental Medicine.
Gantt translated many of Pavlov's works. Some of them were "Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes" and "Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes: Conditioned Reflexes and Psychiatry". He went on to study and publish "Experimental Basis for Neurotic Behavior." His research earned him theLasker Award in 1946. He was also nominated for theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1970.
Gantt founded the Pavlovian Laboratory atJohns Hopkins University under Adolf Meyer. He also founded the Psychophysiological Research Laboratory at theVeterans Administration Hospital inPerry Point, Maryland. In 1953, he was suspended from the VA due to his allegedCommunist sympathies. He was later cleared and reinstated. In 1955, he founded the Pavlovian Society and was its president until 1965.
Gantt had many notable friends and associates. Some of them wereJohn Dos Passos,Ogden Nash,F. Scott Fitzgerald, andH. L. Mencken.