Getz named DSP, three named to endowed chairs

Godfrey Getz

Getz, the Donald N. Pritzker Distinguished Service Professor in Pathology, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Medicine, and the College, has been Chairman of Pathology since 1988.

A biochemical pathologist who specializes in the molecular mechanisms of disease, he has devoted his research career to exploring the link between diet and fatty deposits in blood vessels and has contributed significantly to the understanding of atherosclerosis. This research has led to a preoccupation with the formation of lipoproteins, the proteins that transport fats in the plasma. One of these proteins, apoprotein E, is also involved in Alzheimer's disease. Research on this topic is now an important part of the focus of Getz's laboratory.

He has authored or co-authored hundreds of research papers, abstracts and reviews and has worked in a variety of capacities as a consultant for the National Institutes of Health. From 1981 to 1992, he was Director of the University's Specialized Center for Research on Atherosclerosis.

Getz joined the University faculty in 1964 as Assistant Professor and Director of the Research Chemistry Laboratory of the Pathology Department and was quickly promoted to tenure. He has served as Master of the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division and as Associate Dean of the College and of the Biological Sciences Division. He is also a founder of the Pew Program in Medicine, Arts & the Social Sciences, which encourages selected medical students and M.D. recipients to pursue additional graduate degrees in the arts or social sciences related to medicine.

A native of South Africa, Getz received his B.Sc. in 1951 and his M.D. in 1954 from Witwatersrand University and his D.Phil. in 1963 from Oxford. He was a research associate at Harvard before coming to Chicago in 1964.

Jeffrey Bluestone

Bluestone, Professor and Director of the Ben May Institute, Pathology and the Committee on Immunology, has been appointed the Charles B. Huggins Professor.

A recognized authority on cellular and molecular immunology, Bluestone is interested in understanding the immunological basis of autoimmune diabetes and organ graft rejection. He is currently investigating the use of monoclonal antibodies and soluble receptors to manipulate the behavior of T cells, which in turn direct the response of the immune system. He developed the mouse counterpart to the human antibody OKT3, often used to fight rejection of transplanted organs.

Bluestone received his B.S. in 1974 and his M.S. in 1977 from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. in 1979 from the Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Sloan-Kettering Division. He did postdoctoral research in cellular immunology at the National Cancer Institute, where he became a senior investigator in the Transplantation Biology Section of the NCI's Immunology Branch, before joining the Chicago faculty in 1987.

The author or co-author of more than 200 scientific publications concerning tumor immunology, autoimmunity, immunosuppression in transplant recipients and T-cell biology, Bluestone has served as president of the Chicago Association of Immunologists, as a section editor of the Journal of Immunology, as associate editor of the Journal of Biological Response Modifiers and as a reviewer for several journals, including Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Jeffrey Leiden

Leiden, Professor in Medicine and Pathology, has been appointed the Frederick H. Rawson Professor.

Chief of Cardiology, Leiden is a leading researcher in the molecular biology of cardiac muscle, the regulation of the immune system and gene therapy. His gene therapy research involves inserting therapeutic genes into muscle fibers, a promising new approach to therapies for a variety of genetic diseases, such as certain anemias, hemophilia and possibly even diabetes.

He is the author or co-author of more than 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has contributed to many books and monographs. He also serves as a reviewer for several journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and Science.

Leiden joined the University faculty in 1992 after five years at the University of Michigan, where he was associate chief of the division of cardiology, director of the cardiovascular research center and an associate investigator in that university's Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received his A.B. in 1975, his Ph.D in 1979 and his M.D. in 1981, all from Chicago. Melvyn Shochet

Shochet, Professor in Physics, the Enrico Fermi Institute and the College, is the first to hold the Elaine M. and Samuel D. Kersten Jr. Professorship in the Physical Sciences.

An expert in experimental high-energy physics, Shochet was a member of and spokesman for the team that discovered the top quark earlier this year. The top quark may have been the last remaining undiscovered fundamental building block of matter. Finding it confirms physicists' so-called Standard Model, the theory of the particles and forces that determine the fundamental nature of matter and energy. Shochet had served since 1988 as co-spokesman for the 440-member Collider Detector at Fermilab collaboration, which published the first direct evidence for the top quark in 1994. He is the author or co-author of more than 120 articles on elementary particle physics.

A recipient of the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1978, Shochet has taught at the University since 1973, when he joined the faculty as Instructor. He was appointed Professor in 1985. He also served as a visiting scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory from 1988 until this year. He received his A.B. in 1966 from the University of Pennsylvania and both his M.A. and his Ph.D. in 1972 from Princeton.

The Elaine M. and Samuel D. Kersten Jr. Professorship in the Physical Sciences was endowed earlier this year by Elaine and Samuel Kersten, who have given $2 million to the Campaign for the Next Century to establish the professorship as well as two College scholarships in the physical sciences. (See Summer News Update on this page.)