Five new endowed professorships in the Medical School were made possible last year with funds totaling $6.5 million.

Dean Allen Lichter with Sophie and Max Newman at the inauguration of the Newman Family Professor-ship in Radiation Oncology, on December 10, 2000. Dean Lichter is the first holder of the Newman chair.

A gift from Max Karl Newman (M.D. 1934) of Bloomfield Hills and the Newman Family Foundation established the Newman Family Professorship in Radiation Oncology. The gift was made in recognition of the longstanding relationship of Max Karl Newman and his sons, Donald L. Newman (M.D. 1973) and Steven E. Newman (M.D. 1970) with the University of Michigan and to honor the many accomplishments of their medical careers. Max Newman was a pioneer in physical medicine and rehabilitation and one of the founding members of his specialty. All three of the Newmans are practicing physicians in the Detroit area, Donald in family medicine and Steven in neurology. The Newmans’ gift is also to honor Dean Allen Lichter, M.D., who will be the first holder of the Newman Professorship and whom Max Newman first knew many years ago as the young son of his friend and classmate, Max Lichter, M.D. A ceremony to inaugurate the Newman Family Professorship was held December 10, 2000, at the Michigan League in Ann Arbor.

Two professorships in surgery were made possible with an endowment established by bequest in 1958 to benefit the Department of Surgery from the estate of Battle Creek resident Maud T. Lane. Distributions from the Maud T. Lane Scientific Research Fund provided $2.4 million toward the professorships, with the balance coming from the Department of Surgery. An earlier 1996 distribution from the Lane bequest funded a professorship in her name in the Department of Surgery.

Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs Gilbert S. Omenn with Peg Child, wife of the late C. Gardner Child who served as chair of the Department of Surgery from 1959 to 1974, and Frederic Eckhauser, first holder of the Child Professorship of Surgery, at the inauguration of the Child chair on May 30, 2000.

Lane was a patient of the late C. Gardner Child, M.D., who served as chair of the Department of Surgery from 1959 to 1974. One of the new professorships is named in honor of Child. The other new professorship is named in honor of Hugh Cabot, who was professor of surgery and director of the Department of Surgery from 1919 to 1930. He also served as dean of the Medical School from 1921 to 1930.

The first C. Gardner Child Professor of Surgery is Frederic E. Eckhauser, M.D., who joined the faculty in 1976 and whose major areas of clinical interest include pancreatobiliary cancer, chronic pancreatitis, and portal hypertension. His professorship was inaugurated on May 30, 2000.

The first Hugh Cabot Professor of Surgery is Alfred E. Chang, M.D., who joined the Michigan faculty in 1988 and whose major research interests include cancer immunotherapy and gene therapy. His professorship was inaugurated on September 28, 2000.

Timothy M. Johnson, M.O., associate professor of dermatology, otolaryngology and surgery, was inaugurated January 13, 2000 as the William B. Taylor Collegiate Professor of Dermatology. Johnson is also the director of Cutaneous Surgery and Oncology in the Department of Dermatology, and serves as the clinical director of the Cutaneous Oncology Program in the Comprehensive Cancer Center. His clinical research concerns the systematic surgical management of malignant melonoma, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

The Taylor Professorship honors William Brooks Taylor, a member of the Medical School faculty for 40 years, 25 of them as a professor. Taylor’s legendary diagnostic skills and knowledge of his patients inspired many, including more than 250 residents who trained with him. As a pioneering teacher, Taylor helped establish the clinical teaching program in dermatology at the University of Michigan. Taylor retired from teaching in 1992, and died in 1997.

The Taylor Professorship was established through gifts from friends of the Department of Dermatology, graduates of the dermatology residency training program, faculty members and grateful patients.

Ralph Lydic

In the Department of Anesthesiology, Ralph Lydic, Ph.D., has been named the Bert N. La Du Professor of Anesthesiology Research.

The professorship honors Bert N. La Du Jr. (M.D. 1945), Ph.D., a former chair of the Department of Pharmacology and a biochemist-physician whose illustrious career included research into metabolic pathways, specifically those involved in drug metabolism. La Du was among the first to describe the drug-metabolizing enzyme system of liver microsomes that later became known as cytochrome P-450, now recognized as the major enzymatic pathway responsible for most of the metabolic detoxication of therapeutic drugs, as well as the metabolism of hundreds of other organic compounds in the environment. La Du has also made major contributions in clinical research on several inborn errors of metabolism of amino acids and in pharmacogenetics, the study of genetic traits that cause unusual reactions in some people to therapeutic drugs.

The Bert N. La Du Professorship of Anesthesiology Research was created with gifts from faculty, residents and alumni/ae to acknowledge and commemorate La Du’s contributions to academia and science. La Du recently celebrated his 80th birthday.

Lydic, whose own research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that cause respiratory depression during unconscious states, is the current president of the North American Sleep Research Society.