2004 Henry Gray Award.

Abstract

The Henry Gray Award is the most prestigious award given by the American Association of Anatomists (AAA). This award is presented annually to an AAA member in recognition of his or her unique and meritorious contributions to, and achievements in, the anatomical sciences. The Henry Gray laureate for 2004 is Dr. Bruce M. Carlson of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology of the University of Michigan. Dr. Carlson received his B.A. degree in 1959 from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, in the fields of biology and languages. From 1959 to 1965 Dr. Carlson was extremely busy in the pursuit of advanced degrees. During that time he pursued M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and did graduate work at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He received an M.S. in ichthyology from Cornell in 1964, and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in anatomy from the University of Minnesota in 1965. From 1965 to 1966 he was a U.S. National Academy of Sciences Exchange Fellow in the U.S.S.R., working at the Institute of Developmental Biology in Moscow in the laboratory of Professor L.V. Polezhaev. Dr. Carlson joined the Department of Anatomy at the University of Michigan as an assistant professor in 1966. He advanced through the ranks at Michigan, and became a professor of anatomy in 1975. He went on to serve as chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Michigan from 1988 to 2000, and is presently the director of the Institute of Gerontology at Michigan, a position he assumed in 2000. Early in his career, Dr. Carlson's research focused on morphogenesis and pattern formation during amphibian limb regeneration. In those early experiments, he described the relationship between muscle and skin, and the fact that pattern information appears to be remembered by the cells in those tissues during regeneration. These interesting and well orchestrated research efforts provided a framework for later work on amphibian limb regeneration. However, as time progressed, Dr. Carlson became very interested in issues of mammalian muscle regeneration, an area in which he has made significant contributions to the scientific community. Dr. Carlson has published a number of seminal papers concerned with muscle regeneration, biochemical and cellular aspects of muscle growth, and morphological change. These efforts have included outstanding descriptions of cells, and have elucidated the biochemical process of muscle reorganization under experimental conditions. He has also investigated issues related to innervation and vascularization, and the effect of age on muscle regeneration. He is highly regarded not only in the field of anatomy, but also in the discipline of cell and molecular biology for his significant contributions to our understanding of the organization, structure, and function of mammalian muscle. Since Dr. Carlson is fluent in Russian, he has collaborated with his colleagues in Russia and has appeared as author or co-author on papers published in Russian. During his professional years, Dr. Carlson has had numerous opportunities to participate in collaborative research, such as when he was a Fulbright Fellow at the Hubrecht Laboratory in Utrecht, The Netherlands (1973–1974). Between 1972 and 1980, for one month each year, he was a U.S. Academy of Sciences Exchange Fellow at the Institute of Physiology in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he worked with Professor E. Gutmann. He also served as a Josiah Macy Jr. Fellow in the Department of Pathology at the University of Helsinki (1981–1982), where he worked with Professor Lauri Saxén. In addition to these highly regarded international fellowships, Dr. Carlson has also served as professor of biological sciences at the University of Michigan (1975–present), and as a research scientist in the Institute of Gerontology, University of Michigan (1989–present). Dr. Carlson has received numerous awards and honors in recognition of his accomplishments over the years. He is a member of Sigma Xi and Iota Delta Gamma. He received the First Decade Award for “early achievement” from Gustavus Adolphus College (1969) and was the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award (1978) from that college. He received the Newcomb-Cleveland Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1972, and was an AAAS fellow in 1995. In recognition of his collaboration with his Russian colleagues, he was voted into the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences as a foreign member in 1998. Within the United States, Dr. Carlson has served on numerous national committees and study sections, including the V.A. Advisory Committee on Regeneration (1982–1992), and the N.A.S.-N.R.C. Committee on Developmental Biology in Space (1984–1985). In 1984–1985 he served as a consultant for NASA on developmental biology in space. In addition, Dr. Carlson served as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Advisory Committee on the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe (1977–1981), was a member of the Life Sciences Panel Review-Fulbright-Hayes Program (1976–1979), and served on a number of NIH study sections and ad hoc review committees from 1977 to 1996. Last, but surely not least, Dr. Carlson was a member of the National Board of Medical Examiners (1994–1997). Dr. Carlson's record of research publications and academic accomplishments is outstanding. He has published over 200 research papers and book chapters, has edited four editions of Patton's Embryology, and has written five other books and edited 13 more. Even in his area of “leisure research,” which is fishing, Dr. Carlson has published over 30 articles for the general public. His publications have appeared in highly regarded and outstanding peer-reviewed journals, including the Anatomical Record, Journal of Gerontology, Developmental Dynamics, American Journal of Physiology, Journal of Microvascular Research, and Cell Tissue Research. Dr. Carlson's service to the AAA has covered all aspects of the organization. He has served on the Finance Committee, Awards Committee, Membership Committee, Nominating Committee, and Executive Committee. Dr. Carlson served as president of the AAA from 1997 to 1999. In addition, he also served as president of the Association of Anatomy, Cell Biology, and Neurobiology Chairpersons. Many of his research publications have appeared in the journals of the AAA. Dr. Bruce Carlson has made many important contributions to the fields of anatomy and cell biology through his insightful studies on the structure, function, development, and aging of muscle. He has also dedicated much of his energy to the AAA. The AAA recognizes Bruce M. Carlson as a most worthy recipient of the Henry Gray Award for 2004.