Up for auction a RARE! "Heme Oxygenase" Rudi Schmid Hand Signed 3X4 B&W Photo.
ES-7074E
Rudi Schmid (2 May 1922 – 20
October 2007) was a Swiss-born American medical researcher specializing
in hepatology. Among his contributions to biomedical science, Schmid
led a team to discover heme oxygenase. Schmid
was born on 2 May 1922 to physician parents. He was born and raised in Glarus, which inspired his interest in mountain climbing.
Schmid became a skilled alpinist and skier. Schmid was a member of the Swiss
national ski team from 1941 to 1945, and led the Academic Alpine Club while
studying at the University of Zurich. In
1946, while still at university, Schmid became one of the first climbers to
ascend Mont Blanc via its
west face. He graduated from medical school in 1947, and the next year helped
organize an expedition to the Cordillera Blanca range in Peru for members of the Swiss
Academic Club Alpine. While recovering from injuries during his time in Peru,
Schmid met Salvatore Lucia, who suggested to Schmid that he apply to the University
of California, San Francisco, where Lucia taught. After completing
the UCSF medical internship program, Schmid began his residency and doctoral
study at the University
of Minnesota Medical School under Cecil Watson and Samuel Schwartz. While pursuing advanced
medical studies, Schmid married Sonja Wild in Sacramento, and naturalized as an
American citizen in 1954, upon completing his degree. Schmid was a postdoctoral
researcher at Columbia University, then
worked for the National Institutes of
Health before joining the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, a
division of the Harvard Medical Unit at Boston City Hospital. He
began teaching at the University of Chicago in
1962. Four years later, Schmid joined the UCSF faculty. He was dean of
the UCSF School of Medicine from
1983 to 1989. Over
the course of his career, Schmid was granted membership into the National Academy of
Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and
the Academy of Sciences
Leopoldina. He was later honored with the establishment of the Rudi
Schmid Distinguished Professorship in Neurology at UCSF. Schmid
died of pulmonary failure on 20 October 2007, at home in Kentfield, California,
aged 85.