President George W. Bush presented Pitt transplant pioneer Thomas E.Starzl (left) with the National Medal of Science—the nation’s highest scientific honor—during a White House ceremony Feb. 13. Starzl, Distinguished Service Professor of Surgery in Pitt’s School of Medicine and director emeritus of the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, was honored for groundbreaking work in organ transplantation that spanned more than four decades and earned Pittsburgh the moniker “transplant capital of the world.”
Starzl, 79, remains active in research, mapping the relationship between donor and recipient cells and developing new therapeutic strategies to achieve immune tolerance after transplantation with a much lower risk of side effects from immunosuppressive therapy.
Before presenting medals to Starzl and seven other science laureates, Bush said to them: “People generally do not pursue a career in science or technology with the goal of fame. I’m kind of trying to change that today. The work of discovery is quiet and often solitary. Yet all Americans benefit from your imagination and your talent and your resolve. And so today we’re here to say thanks for what you’ve done. Thanks for helping improve the quality of life in this country. Thanks for inspiring others.”
Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg commented: “Dr. Starzl’s selection for this high honor is a well-deserved tribute to a life characterized by high achievement and extraordinary impact. He has been called the greatest surgeon of the 20th century and has been identified as the world’s most-cited scientist in the broad field of clinical medicine. He first led pioneering efforts that used antirejection drugs to make human organ transplantation possible and then, in an amazing development, led equally significant research efforts to decrease the long-term dependency of organ recipients on those same drugs. His contributions to the cause of human health are immeasurable, and everyone at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is proud that Dr. Starzl has done much of his pathbreaking work here.”
