My Career in Science - Gerhard H Giebisch -- TOC
Living History Project � Gerhard Giebisch:
00:00:53
You were born in Vienna in 1927, and the roots of what we do are set by our
family environment and I was wondering if you could say something about your
parents and what sort of thing they did and how that might have influenced you
in your eventual career?
00:02:40
You decided to apply for and attend medical school was that originally motivated
by a desire to be a practicing physician or� how did you decide to go to medical
school?
00:04:21
So it�s fair to say that your initial motivation to attend medical school wasn�t
to become a physiological scientist so somewhere along the line in medical
school I know you came under influences of different professors who then did
help to develop your interest in physiology and I wondered if you might comment
on that.
00:07:47
At that time you were doing a couple of years of research as a means to an end
of getting clinical training but hadn�t yet committed to a research career at
that time I guess, then your specific interest in renal physiology I know
somehow you came across the writings of Homer Smith, I was wondering if you
could tell us about that.
00:09:38
With that interest in renal physiology starting, how was it that you decided at
a certain point to come to the US for training and really make that your career?
Here you were a student exposed to Homer Smith but what happened next actually
cement your bond renal physiology as a career.
00:11:32
Now of course at that point, here you are a student in Europe you didn�t really
know anybody in the United States scientifically on a direct basis, how did you
arrange your fellowship and obviously you landed in one of the foremost labs
(Dr. Pitts)?
00:13:28
I know there is a little side story to your going to Milwaukee because you had a
pen pal who was from Wisconsin, if you�d like to tell that story?
00:14:34
So here you were an intern in Milwaukee and exploring possibilities for doing
research training and again here you were without any direct personal contact
with any of these famous individuals at that time how did you make a connection
to get training?
00:16:32
What was the environment like in Pitt�s group at that time, obviously he was
internationally famous as an acid/base physiologist?
00:19:30
We�ve talked about a couple of the projects you first worked on in Dr. Pitts lab
but I know that in his role as a mentor it was not only to get you started in
specific technical projects but in a way it opened up a world of connections for
you to get to know people in the field, I don�t know if you want to talk about
that specific aspect of your training with Dr. Pitts?
00:22:06
Pitts himself and his lab largely used clearance methods metabolism at the level
of the whole kidney and you were one of the pioneers in studying transport
phenomenon at the level of the single tubule, since that technical expertise was
not available in Pitts� lab so how did you learn that and support yourself to
learn that?
00:29:54
Because of you ability of measure potassium secretion in the nephron and proceed
from that to develop a cell model of potassium secretion I know that
intellectually there was a very strong link to the Ussing model of sodium
transport, I don�t know if you wanted to mention how that intellectual model
developed?
00:33:53
You�ve mentioned in essence uniting Bob Berliner here at Yale and going back to
the 1960s obviously your work was flourishing, you had a wonderful environment
in the Pitts group at Cornell but then in 1968 you were recruited to Yale were
you�ve been and flourished for the last 40 years. So what made you come to Yale
at that point in time? What was it about Yale that seemed attractive and how did
moving to Yale ultimately affect your career and ability to do science?
00:36:30
You came here before Bob Berliner had become our dean, were you involved in his
recruitment?
00:36:58
At Yale as well as before you trained innumerable people I know that I�ve always
been impressed that anyone you�ve ever trained not only did so many go on to
very successful careers but they became lifelong friends and perpetual recurring
collaborators, so there must be something very special about your ability to
mentor people and I wonder if you could comment on what you think are the
characteristics of a good mentor and what way you found yourself to be that
successful?
00:39:14
You mentioned your initial work mapping out ion transport along the nephron in
terms of tubular transport by use of intracellular electrodes and ion sensitive
electrodes to determine driving forces, in the last stage of your active lab
career using patch clamp methods to study single ion channels so you made
multiple transitions of technology while maintaining your productivity often
people get locked into a certain technique so how are you able to do that? What
was the secret so to speak of being able to transition methodologically while
keeping the lab just as productive as always?
00:43:05
In addition to your research you always took teaching very seriously (medical
student teaching) you took your responsibilities as a professor as being more
than just that Yale is a research institute but that it�s a school where people
need to be taught and taught by professors so I wonder if you could comment a
little on your philosophy of education and your dedication to teaching over the
years?
00:445:02
One other way that you�ve done teaching was the textbooks, of course one of the
most prominent textbooks is the one you edited with Don Seldin who is a long
time friend; if you want to comment on how you met Dr. Seldin and how you became
such close friends?
00:47:00
When conducting your academic life, obviously incredible dedication to research,
teaching, writing textbooks, many, many papers, being sort of an international
states person for kidney research, organizing meetings all over the world, how
did you interface that with your family life? Your wife Illsid often traveled
with you, you have two wonderful children and grandchildren now, do you feel a
tension between you professional life and family life? Any comment on that?
00:49:24
You have a very close family. Your two children live in this area and you�re
very close to your grandchildren.
00:51:23
As the years have progressed and some major universities have actually
deemphasized physiology as a department and I know you have very strong feelings
about the importance of physiology as a basic science discipline and the
importance of medical maintaining commitment to physiology and I wondered if you
would like to expand on that?
00:53:45
Now a days in the current environment there�s a little bit of a cyclical down
period for NIH funding rates and many young people may be a little bit
apprehensive about dedicating themselves to research careers, obviously you
derive tremendous satisfaction from your own career so I wonder if you have any
advice for young scientist?
00:55:28
But yet as we recount, as we went over the story of your own career and we�ll
end with this that in a sense you never had certainty going along the way. You
started out going to medical probably with the intent to become a clinician,
then you found your way to Pitts� lab and began some projects that didn�t work
right away and even thought the times maybe a little bit better statistically
for getting grants at that time it was always uncertain but you probably didn�t
worry about it, so is that the ultimate message? That if you do something you
really love that you don�t worry so much about the risk you�re taking?