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Letter to Beverly Bishop
James Boyer writes: “My apologies for not replying to your letter of
August 28, my 70th birthday sooner. Thank you for your request for
information on my career. I am still full-time and doing pretty much what I
always have been doing as Director of the Liver Center at Yale University
School of Medicine with on going responsibility for two Center grants (one
at Yale and one at the Mt. Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Maine) and
an R0-1 of nearly 30 years devoted to mechanisms of bile secretion and
cholestasis. My advice to younger colleagues is to find a passion that will
sustain their interest over the years; to seek out good mentor(s); to
surround one’s self with younger colleagues who are smarter then you and get
out of their way and let them take credit; the success of one’s
students will be their greatest joy (paraphrased from Osler); and, finally,
to have fun. If you are not having fun, you are in the wrong business. Thank
you again for your letter and request for this information.”
Letters to Charles Tipton
Joseph Blum writes: “Now that I am 80 years old I am not doing any
research or scientific writing, although if one of my colleagues gets funded
I may collaborate with her group. My advice to young physiologists is that,
in addition to becoming thoroughly familiar with molecular biology, they
should take at least one course in ‘advanced’ mathematics, such as
differential equations or statistical analysis. The amount of interaction
between physiologists and mathematicians is rapidly increasing as a result
of the ability to acquire all kinds of data with a precision that was not
possible as little as 10 years ago, due to new data collecting devices and
very high speed computers. If a young physiologist has some background in
math, he/she can then collaborate with a mathematician to develop useful
models of the physiological system under study.”
Ed Bernauer writes: “I remain active in research of a kind: I was a
co-investigator with a faculty on one of the community college campuses. We
were attempting to record the daily energy expenditure, especially the sleep
and basal costs against the recording of the energy intake. The unique
aspect was to use a new device termed a Body Bugg, a unit which has four
sensors worn on the arm that includes heat flow, skin temperature,
accerlerometer, and heart rate. We did basal metabolism and sitting,
standing, with and without arm movements, and walking metabolisms. Presently
working on the data. The question, does it improve on the older documented
literature? I am skeptical, but the control of the subjects and the detail
was worth the effort.
“Words of wisdom to younger colleagues: I believe I do have some general
comments, but need some time to reflect on this point.
“I have a fair amount of limited publications and written reports related to
my work as a consultant over a period of 15 years. It includes my assessment
of work demands and setting of physical standards for the workplace as it
affects wellness and fitness for purposes of medical liabilities, and
conforms to the Civil Rights and the subsequent legal bills passed in the
early ‘90’s. Some of the major jobs included: State of California;
California Highway Patrol physical standards, as we as for several local
police and fire departments; San Francisco Airport Security Police; Cable
billing in Sacramento, one of my most interesting; California Bell Telephone
Co., the one that got me started when the Cardiology department deferred
them to me; it began when females were accepted in the construction jobs
within the company; the Air Force Academy with the admission of Female
Cadets; the University of California at Davis grounds keepers and janitorial
services; this in conjunction with the large increase in medical insurance
money being spent by the UCD campus; also, their Fire Department that had
never hired a female firefighter prior to my study and that made them very
vulnerable to a legal challenge by Federal Agencies. This last item resulted
in my developing an elective course entitled, ‘Wellness and fitness in the
Work Place.’ My experience came together and forced me to recognize the
folly of the single dimension of dealing with this as a physiological
problem rather than a historical, legal, insurance-medical problem, a
conflict between various departments in industry, as well as the University,
e.g., the personnel department and health and safety people. The latter were
for pre-employment testing and the former were against it. My experience
with all of these factions resulted in pulling all of these factors together
in a very interesting exposition of the issue of physical standards in the
work place conforming to the law and in the best interests of the employee
and employer. Shephard has written a book on this, which is fairly good,
however, it does not include many of the features at play in the US system.
So, you see, I do have some fair amount of stuff that I don’t know what to
do with.”
Letter to Julio Cruz
Andrew Schally writes: “Co-recipient of the 1977 Nobel Prize in
Medicine-Physiology was transferred from the Veterans Administration (VA)
Hospital in New Orleans closed after the disaster of Hurricane Katrina to
the VA Medical Center in Miami and the South Florida Veterans Affairs
Foundation for Education and Research. Dr. Schally is a Distinguished
Medical Research Scientist, Department of Veterans Affairs and heads the
Endocrine, Polypeptide and Cancer Institute, located in Miami. Dr. Schally
was also appointed Distinguished Leonard Miller Professor at Miller School
of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida. Dr. Schally will continue
his work in endocrine oncology at the new Miami location. Nobel laureates
never retire.” |
