My Career in Science - Novera Herbert Spector -- TOC
Living History Project � Novera Herbert Spector, Ph.D.
00:02:38
Tell us a little bit about your family origins in Russia and how your father
happened to come to the United States.
00:05:11
Your father met your mother where?
00:05:47
You were born in what year?
00:05:51
Your parents named you Novera Herbert Spector, where did the name Novera come
from?
00:06:53
Herb please share some information about your early life and those influences
that contributed to your career development.
00:07:42
How did you end up in CCNY and what were your early career plans?
00:08:46
And your advisor at CCNY was who?
00:09:28
Even though CCNY was free tuition you also worked while you were in college.
00:10:36
You were a good student and you had the potential of going to medical school,
why didn�t you go?
00:11:34
I know you wrote about that in your letter to Senior Physiologist that appeared
in the February issue of The Physiologist, but for those of our listeners
who haven�t read your letter could you tell us a little about your experiences
as a civil rights organizer and labor organizer?
00:15:09
You had some run-ins with being censured and you had the ACLU supporting you
what was the story there?
00:17:04
Now did winning it [the case] mean that you were reinstated?
00:20:39
After receiving your doctorate you went to the Medical College of Virginia as a
research associate and then an assistant professor and while there you were also
a NASA consultant can you tell us a little bit about the consulting you did with
NASA?
00:25:00
After MCV you became a Professor at Claude Bernard University, Lyons, France.
Tell us how you happened to ended up in Europe and your experiences while there.
00:26:06
What kind of research were you doing in France?
00:26:55
Tell us about your return from France In 1971 and you�re becoming Chief and
Senior Research Physiologist at Walter Reed Institute of Research.
00:29:32
What work were you doing there [Walther Reed Institute]?
00:30:56
After you were at Walter Reed you ended up spending a year as a rotator at the
National Science Foundation, how did you end up there after having been in the
research lab to go into a research administration position?
00:34:43
Tell us a little bit about your experiences as a program officer at NIH and if
you can tell reflect on the difference between NIH and NSF; the roles and
responsibilities that you had.
00:37:42
One of the things that was intriguing when I looked at your resume was that
while you were at NIH for 18 years you managed to take a sabbatical from NIH as
well and go off twice for 1 year periods to do research; how did those
sabbatical year come about?
00:40:02
When you were at NIH before you retired you received the directors award and
that was for what purpose?
00:43:23
Herb, you were one of the founders of the International Society for
Neuroimmunomodulation (ISNIM). Can you tell us a bit about the founding of the
Society? And you have been a keynote speaker at a number of congresses and you
created what you call the �Stomboli
Cocktail.� Can you tell us about the Society that was founded and as well as
the �Stomboli Cocktail�?
00:46:57
One of the things that many people don�t know about was your passion for
fencing. It started when you were at CCNY and in 2004 you were inducted into the
US Fencing Hall of Fame and the young fencers these days call you �Foxy
Grandpa�. Tell us a little bit about fencing and how you got into it and I know
you were on some US Olympic squads as well.
00:49:55
You were also telling us that you were also involved with teaching a bit of
saber ware or saber fencing at the opera as well can you tell us a little bit
about that?
00:52:55
In your recent letter in The Physiologist, you ended by stating �The past
and its many lessons should not be forgotten, but it is even more important to
focus on the future.� At 91, I was hoping that you would expand on this
statement and provide the viewers with some advice for the future.