Saulo Klahr Was as Good as It Gets

Abstract

Saulo Klahr was a brilliant, cultured man; a physician who excelled in both clinical and basic medical research. He was born in 1935 and raised in the small town of Santendar, Colombia. When Saulo was still in high school, he shared an experience with many of us. He read Microbe Hunters , and from that point on, medicine and medical research would be his chosen fields. Graduating from the Universidad National de Colombia School of Medicine at the top of his class, he remained in Colombia for 3 years of clinical training and then embarked on what proved to be a life-changing event. Saulo decided to become a nephrologist and moved to the United States, where, being a graduate of a foreign medical school and speaking less than perfect English, his hopes for a career in academic medicine had to be regarded as a long shot. In 1966, he visited me at Washington University in St. Louis hoping for a fellowship. This was a moment when nephrology was a new field …