changing the course of stroke - New Jersey Medical School ...

last word
New Research Dean
for NJMS
WHO IS HARVEY LEON OZER, the new senior associate
dean for research at NJMS? His colleagues, enthusiastic
over his appointment, say that “he is someone who
clearly puts the institution and department needs in front of his
own personal agenda” and they are “really looking forward to his
leadership in this critical position.” The accolades go on and on.
He’s described as an intellectual, a role
model and mentor, honest, fair and supportive.
All this and a respected research
scientist, too. He attributes these aspects
of his character to motivation provided
by his parents who stressed that their
children do something with their lives.
Ozer graduated cum laude from
Harvard College in 1960, and earned
his MD from Stanford Medical School
in 1965. While there he became interested
in genetics research, completing a
fellowship in genetics and a year as a visiting
research fellow at the Institute for
Tumor Biology at the Karolinska
Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
He interned at Boston Children’s
Hospital Medical Center and served in
the U.S. Public Health Service as a
research associate and staff fellow at the
NIH, and as a senior scientist at the
Worcester Foundation of Experimental
Biology. His career also includes stints at
the University of Massachusetts School
of Medicine, Hunter College, the
Graduate Center of the City University
of New York, the Weizmann Institute in
Israel and Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine.
40
PULSE SPRING 2003
In 1988, NJMS recruited Ozer as a
professor and chair of the Department
of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.
“I made the decision to come here
because I knew that the department was
good and anticipated that I could possibly
make it even better,” he comments.
He holds a joint appointment at
UMDNJ’s Graduate School of Biomedical
Sciences and also New Jersey Dental
School, and considers the recent relocation
of the Department of Microbiology
and Molecular Genetics into the newly
constructed state-of-the-art facilities
at the International Center for Public
Health in Science Park as one of his
major accomplishments.
In his new position, in addition to
focusing on research growth, he looks
forward to being a spokesperson for the
NJMS research community. One of his
first recruits, Jeffrey Wilusz, PhD, now
professor of microbiology and molecular
genetics, and assistant dean of the
MD/PhD Program at NJMS, says that
Ozer was one of the top reasons he
accepted a position here. Wilusz says
that the new dean’s “knowledge of
NJMS inside and out, combined with
his experience as a scientist, a grant
reviewer, and an administrator, will help
to spearhead the growth of research at
this school.”
Nancy Connell, PhD, agrees. Currently
vice-chair of research in the
Department of Medicine, she was also
one of Ozer’s early faculty appointments.
She says that as a department
chair he was generous to a fault with
his time and energy and support for
faculty, staff and students. “He recognized
the contributions of all members
in the department. He thinks carefully
about everything he does and says, and
I’ve never known him to react in haste.”
Jant Fant, MS, assistant dean for
research, says: “He is a facilitator who
brings investigators together to work
toward the good of the school.”
Ozer’s long scientific career means he
knows the challenges of the job. To this
day, he finds his field of research exciting.
For more than 30 years he and his
coworkers collaborated in a research
program combining the approaches of
genetics, viruses, cancer and more recently,
aging, supported by grants from
the NIH’s National Cancer Institute
and the National Institute on Aging.
He finds academic medicine rewarding,
and also a way to give back something.
“I am proud of my personal successes,
but I also take pride in my colleagues’
accomplishments.” ●
—Carole Walker
JOHN EMERSON