Joseph Thomas Bagnara (1929-2016), a pioneer of Pigment Cell Biology par excellence.

Abstract

The international pigment cell research community lost one of its pioneers and pillars with the passing away of Professor Joseph T. Bagnara on October 2, 2016. Joe, as we, his students who became his friends, called him, obtained his Ph.D. in 1956 from the State University of Iowa (now known as University of Iowa). He spent his entire career at the University of Arizona, rising through the ranks to Professor and Chairman of the Department of General Biology. In 1992, he became Professor Emeritus. He rightly merits to be called the father of comparative pigment cell biology, as he focused most of his research on investigating the regulation of color change in different amphibians. He was a hard-core embryologist, zoologist, and endocrinologist. Joe taught the Embryology courses at the University of Arizona, and his Embryology text book was used by many professors in different universities. He was a scholar with a vision who desired to connect with other scientists internationally. He was twice a Fulbright Research Scholar, which provided him with the opportunity to do research in the Laboratoire d'Embryologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Paris, Paris, France, and later at the Stazione Zoologica di Napoli in Italy. He pioneered the research on the role of the pineal gland in regulating skin lightening and the identification of the different types of pigment cells in amphibians. He had a multidisciplinary approach to his research, using in vivo experiments, organ and tissue culture, electron microscopy as well as biochemistry to demonstrate the effects of different hormones and the role of different chromatophores in regulating rapid color changes in frogs. Many of his publications are classics in the pigment cell research literature. He collaborated with his colleagues at the University of Arizona, and also with many pigment cell researchers in Europe and Japan. Joe cherished his role as a teacher and mentor. He was always proud of his mentees and their achievements. On his retirement party, which was held in 1995 during the annual meeting of the PanAmerican Society for Pigment Cell Research in Kansas City, Kansas, his former students gathered to celebrate his scientific achievements. The group included Dr. Sally K. Frost-Mason, who was President of the PanAmerican Society for Pigment Cell Research and until recently the President of the University of Iowa, and John Taylor, who was Professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Joe should be acknowledged for founding, in 1987, the journal Pigment Cell Research (now Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research) and for serving as its first editor-in-chief. He was very fond and proud of this personal project, and we are grateful that he gave us this medium to communicate our science and expand the breadth of our specialty. Joe also played a major role in establishing the International Federation for Pigment Cell Societies and is one of the founders of the PanAmerican Society for Pigment Cell Research, which was conceived during the International Pigment Cell meeting in Tucson, Arizona, in 1986. Joe won many prestigious international and national awards, including the Myron Gordon Award from the IFPCS, and the Career Achievement Award from PASPCR. Joe wrote his autobiography “Unfinished Business: a Biologist in the Latter Half of the 20th Century,” which is a “must read” for all pigment cell researchers, as he narrates the history not only of his own career and travels but also of the evolution of pigment cell research worldwide and the establishment of the International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies. Those of us who had the honor and privilege to know Joe personally remember him not only as a kind mentor but mostly as a friend who remained in touch with us and always provided words of encouragement and support. On a personal note, thanks to Joe, I joined the Department of Dermatology at the University of Cincinnati in 1985 after graduating with a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. He was the one who introduced me to James Nordlund, M.D., the Chairman of the department and my postdoctoral mentor at the time. Joe enjoyed life, loved the wilderness, was an avid athlete, and cared for his students and friends without limits. He was proud to know several languages and to have international friends and colleagues. He inspired us to work hard yet enjoy life to the fullest. “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” (Isaac Newton). Mentors are persons who help shape our lives without molding us necessarily in their image. Joe, you are gone, but your legacy lives in all of us who knew you. Fond memories always remain, and we strive to pass the torch to our own students and mentees.