I received both the MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University in California; the latter (Dr. David Korn, preceptor) was awarded “with distinction.”  I chose to pursue a career in biomedical research, undertook a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Günter Blobel (recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine) at the Rockefeller University in New York and have been a member of the Pharmacological Sciences Faculty at Stony Brook University since 1983.  I am now Professor (since 1997) and Vice-Chair (since 2005).

My research career spanned more than three decades; through the years 1982-2005, I was continuously funded as a Principal Investigator (Project Director) by the US NIH.  During this period, I also received funding sporadically from several other agencies including the American Cancer Society, the British Royal Society, RIKEN of Japan, the International Human Frontiers Science Program, NATO, the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, and others.

I was also intimately involved in training highly-talented students in biomedical research.  From 1988 to 2003, I served as Director of the Stony Brook MSTP (MD-PhD Program), submitted the first successful MSTP-training grant from this institution to the NIH-NIGMS (beginning in 1992 and ending in 1997), and renewed this NIGMS training grant for two successive five-year periods (1997-2002 and 2002-2007).  Since 2003, I have served as Associate Director of this program.

With the termination of my competitive research funding in 2005, I decided, entirely for reasons of health, to end my research career (I no longer have a laboratory) and focus instead on medical education.  I first became interested in medical education during my tenure as MSTP director, refined my interest through service from 1998-2003 on the NIH-NIGMS Study Section (BRT) involved in review of training grant applications, and since assuming the Vice-Chair position in our department, have been responsible for all aspects of our educational enterprise including a college undergraduate program, a program for nursing and allied health professions’ students, a PhD program in Pharmacology, and standard programs for both medical students and dental students.  For the last six academic years, I have served as Course Director for Medical Pharmacology, a year-long course for second year students of both Medicine and Dentistry.  I have also been heavily involved in curricular design and revision, both formally and informally, in both Medical and Dental Schools.