Scott L. Friedman, 59th President, AASLD

✍ Scribed by Meena B. Bansal; Simon W. Beaven; Don C. Rockey

• Book ID: 102242011
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 108 KB
• Volume: 48
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0270-9139
• DOI: 10.1002/hep.22669

✦ Synopsis

I

t is our great pleasure to introduce you to Scott L. Friedman, the 59th President of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). Each of us has had the opportunity to work with Scott and know him as an accomplished scientist, faithful mentor, loyal colleague, friend, and visionary leader. Scott truly excels in all of these capacities, but we also know that he takes his greatest joy in continuing to cultivate successful careers for the people he mentors. Therefore, as his mentees, we are honored to highlight for you the attributes that have made him a leader in academic hepatology and our next AASLD president.

Scott is a 1979 graduate of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he served as the President of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society and was an awardee of the Arthur Aufses, Sr. Prize in Surgery. After graduation, he completed his residency in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. From there, he traveled west for training in Gastroenterology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he would quickly become an important part of a hepatology lineage established by Drs. Rudi Schmid and Montgomery Bissell. Scott is quick to point out that he had no laboratory experience when he began his research career working with Dr. Bissell as a fellow. Even today, he counsels budding physician-scientists: "If you are smart enough to get into medical school, then you are smart enough for research. All you need is an open mind, inquisitive nature, and thick skin." The value of his prepared mind became evident during these early years as Scott made his first pivotal contribution to the science of hepatology. Together with Dr. Joe Roll and the UCSF Rice Liver Center team, Scott isolated "lipocytes", now universally known as hepatic stellate cells. Further work