Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Irwin Freedberg on NIH Study Section

2006; Elsevier BV; Volume: 126; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/sj.jid.5700178

1523-1747

Harold M. Davidson,

Medicine and Dermatology Studies History

I met Irwin Freedberg because of my position at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, where I was executive secretary/scientific review administrator in the Division of Research Grants, later renamed the Center for Scientific Review. How did it come about that I, a former bench scientist from a far-off discipline, should be so lucky as to land amidst the investigative dermatologists and get to work — in review — with the likes of Irwin and his distinguished colleagues? In 1946, after a wartime stint in the United States Navy, and under the good auspices of my undergraduate alma mater, Harvard College, I got a job as a chemical technician with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. What impressed me particularly in all of the hubbub was the quiet concentration of Walter Lever at Harvard Medical School, Department of Physical Chemistry. As he sat among the physical chemists in front of an array of upturned glass butter-dish covers from which he harvested little skin-like fibrin precipitates to be deposited in porcelain wells for drying in a hot oven and ultimate weighing. My youthful conclusion from watching Dr. Lever was that research in dermatology did exist, it could be fun, and the boundaries of academic disciplines could be flexible. I liked the possibilities. Fast-forward through graduate school, postdoc, and a decade of biochemical research to 1961, when I joined the Division of Research Grants at the National Institutes of Health to review grant applications in biomedical research — first as executive secretary of the Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases Program–Project Committee, and then conducting project-grant review with the General Medicine A Study Section. The latter became first GMA-1 and then the Arthritis, Connective Tissue and Skin Study Section, which reviews only grant proposals in dermatology and rheumatology. I had choices along the line, and they were inevitably to stay with review in dermatology. David Bickers must have noted this when he was chairing GMA-1, and he encouraged me to join the Society for Investigative Dermatology. With all this bonding to dermatology research and its community, it was inevitable that I would meet Irwin Freedberg. Irwin attended one meeting of GMA-1 as an ad hoc member, and his performance was great. I tried to recruit him for full membership in GMA-1 but failed. Blame it on timing, his conflicting responsibilities, or whatever. Nevertheless, the channels stayed open, and we spoke often. Irwin would always help when asked. His commitment to the review process at the National Institutes of Health was strong, and I appreciated being able to count on him. Our last encounter was at a luncheon in 2004 at the Society for Investigative Dermatology meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. Sitting next to him at the table, I had a fine opportunity to witness how he sparkled and interacted with the assembled guests — lay, scientific, and academic — all of whom he seemed to know quite well. Many people, myself included, miss him now.