Biography
I was born during the Great Depression in the town of Catskill, NY. My father had completed a degree in electrical engineering at RPI and soon started a position with the American Can Co. in New York City where he authored many patents on automated systems. We moved several times before I was six but finally settled in Chappaqua, NY until the end of WWII when my family moved to a small farm near Poughkeepsie, NY. My father continued to commute to New York while my mother, sisters and I took care of the farm. I loved working with the animals, and, after high school, I chose to go to Cornell in the pre-veterinary program. Working with the local veterinarian in the summer gave me a different perspective. I was not happy working with unhealthy animals, and, after working in the lab of my advisor on nutrition research, I decided on a career in academia. After marrying a Cornell coed, we went to the University of Connecticut where I pursued further work in nutrition. My project was on the retention and biodistribution of the several isomers of tocopherol in dairy calves. After receiving the MS degree, I decided to return to Cornell where I had been greatly impressed with lectures by William Hansel on endocrinology. There I worked with Glen Schmidt on progesterone metabolism in a rabbit model.
By now, I had two children. My wife worked as a teacher, and I had a teaching assistantship. Realizing that a Ph.D. was insufficient for an academic career, I took a postdoctoral fellowship in Biological Chemistry at the Harvard Medical School with Roy O. Greep, a renowned reproductive endocrinologist. There I worked on interactions between the ovarian steroids and gonadotropin secretion. When it was time to look for a full-time job, I wanted to continue research and accepted a position as a Research Associate at the Institute for Steroid Research, an affiliate of the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, where I continued my studies of progesterone. My first University appointment was at the Abraham Lincoln College of Medicine at University of Illinois, Chicago, where I rose to Associate Professor in Ob/Gyn, Physiology, and Biochemistry. I taught endocrinology to first year medical students, had several graduate students, and continued my interest in hormonal control of reproduction. In 1979 the Chair of Ob/Gyn decided to leave, and with that disruption many of us looked for alternative positions. I had worked on a review committee with John J. Sciarra, Chair of Ob/Gyn at Northwestern Medical School, and he offered me a position in his department where I also had appointments in Physiology and Pathology. Here I worked on a number endocrine-related projects, taught endocrinology, mentored graduate and postdoctoral students, and served as Director of the Outpatient Laboratory of the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation.
chat@northwestern.edu
