MIPS: Heros and History

Physiology research has been an important element of our school for a century. The intersections of lung physiology and mechanics were first brought to clear fruition here in the early part of the twentieth century by the Drinker brothers, when Philip the engineer and Cecil the physician combined their talents to invent the iron lung. Around the middle of the century, Jim Whittenberger recognized the need to better understand lung biology before we could anticipate and interpret how environmental exposures threatened our health, and he was perhaps the first to include a program in physiology research in a department of environmental health. A crucial early recruitment of his was Jere Mead, who elucidated the mechanics of respiration through the middle and later parts of the century. In the late 1960s, Joe Brain began extending levels of lung biology analyses from organism and organs to cell and molecules. In the present, we are elucidating lung biology at ever more sophisticated levels of molecular detail, with unprecedented abilities to integrate this knowledge with cell, organ, organism, and population biology. The interdisciplinary nature of our earliest research, particularly the intersections of biology and engineering, continues to be a hallmark of our program. While excited about what we are now doing and planning, we are also proud of what our program has accomplished.

Where are they now? Below is a list of a few previous members of the program...

1950s

Jere Mead, M.D. (faculty)
Retired, Maine

Mary Ellen Avery, M.D. (trainee)
Physician-in-Chief Emeritus
Children's Hospital, Boston


1960s

Peter T. Macklem, M.D. (trainee)
Professor of Medicine Emeritus
McGill University

Mary Ellen Wohl, M.D. (trainee)
Division Chief Emerita, Pediatric Pulmonology, Children?s Hospital of Boston
Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School


1970s

Everett Sinnett, Ph.D. (trainee)
Scientific Review Administrator, Respiratory Sciences
National Instutues of Health

Julian Solway, M.D. (trainee)
Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine
Chairman, Committee on Molecular Medicine
University of Chicago

Thomas Zeltner, M.D. (trainee)
State Secretary and Director
Federal Office of Public Health, Switzerland


1980s

George Barnas, Ph.D. (trainee)
Scientific Review Administrator, Respiratory Sciences
National Instutues of Health

Marc Hershenson, M.D. (trainee)
Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of Pediatrics
University of Michigan

Mara Ludwig, M.D. (trainee)
Professor of Medicine
McGill University

Michael B. Reid, Ph.D. (trainee, faculty)
Professor and Chairman of Physiology
University of Kentucky

Dimitrije Stamenovic, Ph.D. (trainee)
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
College of Engineering, Boston University

Angeline E. Warner, D.V.M., Sc.D. (trainee, faculty)
Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine


1990s

Robert Clarke, Ph.D. (trainee)
Director of Research
Pulmatrix, Inc.

Claire M. Doerschuk, M.D. (faculty)
Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Vice-Chair of Research and Chief of the Division of Integrative Biology, Rainbow Babies Children?s Hospital

Ben Fabry, Ph.D. (trainee)
Professor, Physics Department and Director, Institute for Biomedical Technology
Erlangen University

Charles W. Frevert, D.V.M., Sc.D. (trainee)
Research Associate Professor of Medicine
University of Washington

Stephen Loring, M.D. (trainee, faculty)
Associate Professor
Harvard Medical School
Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital

Geoff Maksym, Ph.D. (trainee)
Associate Professor
School of Biomedical Engineering, Dalhousie University

Paul Moore, M.D. (trainee)
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Pharmacology
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Joseph Paulauskis, Ph.D. (faculty)
Director, Genomic Pathology
Pfizer Global Research & Development

Steve Shea, Ph.D. (trainee)
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Director, Sleep Disorders Research Program, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Peggy Taylor, Ph.D. (trainee)
Vice President, Production and Development
Signet Laboratories


2000s

Ning Wang, Sc.D. (trainee, faculty)
Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
University of Illinois-Urbana

Robert Banzett, Ph.D. (trainee, faculty)
Associate Professor
Harvard Medical School
Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital

Steven An, Ph.D. (trainee)
Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Richard Johnston, Ph.D. (trainee)
Assistant Professor of Medicine
University of Texas, Galveston