Melvin M. Grumbach

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Melvin M. Grumbach
Born(1925-12-21)December 21, 1925
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedOctober 4, 2016(2016-10-04) (aged 90)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Scientific career
FieldsPediatric endocrinology
InstitutionsUniversity of California, San Francisco

Melvin Malcolm Grumbach (December 21, 1925 – October 4, 2016) was an American pediatrician and academic who specialized in pediatric endocrinology. Called Edward B. Shaw Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, Grumbach was noted for his research and writing on the effect of hormones and the central nervous system on growth and puberty and their disorders; the function of the human sex chromosomes; and disorders of sexual development.

Career

After graduating from New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, New York, and then attending Columbia College in New York City, Grumbach went on to earn his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, in 1948. He completed his internship at Mount Sinai Hospital in 1949 and his residency at Babies Hospital, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in pediatrics under the direction of Rustin McIntosh in 1951. During the Korean War he served as a captain in the United States Air Force Medical Corps, with assignments at Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies in Tennessee and at Fort Detrick Biological Laboratories in Maryland. Following his military service, Grumbach did a fellowship with Lawson Wilkins at Johns Hopkins. He then returned to Babies Hospital and Columbia University in 1955, becoming founding director of the Pediatric Endocrine Division at Babies Hospital. In 1966 Grumbach was recruited to the University of California San Francisco as chairman of the Department of Pediatrics, and in 1983 he was named the first Edward B. Shaw Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics. Grumbach served as chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at University of California San Francisco for over two decades, transforming the department into one of the leading academic centers for pediatrics in the country. Grumbach stepped down as chairman of pediatrics in 1986 and retired in 1994, but he remained active in the field until December 2014.[1][2]

Grumbach made many seminal contributions the understanding of pediatric endocrinology including extensive studies on the development and function of the endocrine and neuroendocrine systems from fetal life through puberty, as well as studies of the hormonal and genetic effects on growth, bone maturation, puberty, sex determination and differentiation (and their disorders) and disease-causing pathology. He was a past president of the Endocrine Society, the American Pediatric Society, the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society, the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairmen, and honorary president of the International Endocrine Society. From 1956 to 1990 he supervised the training of 82 fellows from 15 countries on five continents. No single individual trained as many leaders or had a broader impact on pediatric endocrinology. He died on October 4, 2016, of a heart attack.[3]

Awards and honors

References

  1. ^ Shapiro, Larry J. (December 1997). "American Pediatric Society John Howland Award 1997: Presentation 1". Pediatric Research, Vol. 42, Issue 6, pp 902-905
  2. ^ Miller, Walter L. (December 2016). "In Memoriam: Melvin M. Grumbach (1925–2016)". Endocrinology, Vol. 157, Issue 12, pp. 4499–4501. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  3. ^ Bai, Nina (7 October 2016). "Melvin Malcolm Grumbach, Renowned Pediatric Endocrinologist, Dies at 90". UCSF News Center. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
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