A tribute to E. Donnall Thomas

摘要

The bone marrow transplantation community mourns the death of its undisputed leader, Nobel laureate E. Donnall Thomas, who passed away October 20, 2012, at the age of 92 (Figure (Figure11).Don was born March 15, 1920, in Mart, a small town in rural Texas. His father, Edward E. Thomas, was a general practitioner, and his mother, Angie Hill Donnall, was a teacher. In his Nobel acceptance speech, Don described himself as a mediocre student in high school and during his first year at the University of Texas in Austin in 1937. To support himself during his undergraduate studies, Don worked various jobs; he met his future wife, Dorothy (Dottie) Martin, during a snowball fight after waiting tables in her dormitory. They married in 1942 and had an exceptional life together in a partnership that included a dynamic loving family life with three children and grandchildren, as well as his research family. Dottie worked as a lab technician, administrator, and editor in chief of the many research papers and books produced by Don and the team. Don received a BA (1941) and a MA (1943) in chemistry and chemical engineering and enrolled in Harvard Medical School, where he received his MD in 1946. He completed an internship, a year of hematology training, two years in the Army, a year of postdoctoral research at MIT, and two years of medical residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.