Standing with giants: W.J. Whelan, a catalyst for international cooperation via the Miami Winter Symposium and the IUBMB

Abstract

The Miami Winter Symposium, now in its fifth decade, appeared with various names in its early offerings. Dr. William J. Whelan, Professor and Chairman of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine started the Symposium in 1967 and continued to organize the annual meeting for many years. In 1983, I relocated from Vanderbilt University, where I was Professor of Biochemistry, to the University of Miami as Director of an interdepartmental research and clinical group, taking my primary faculty appointment in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Working with Dr. Whelan and others on the Organizing Committee for the 1986 Miami Winter Symposium, I recommended my friend and former colleague at Vanderbilt University, the late Dr. Stanley Cohen, for the Feodor Lynen Lecture. This proposal was met with enthusiasm by the Organizing Committee, as was the suggestion by Dr. Whelan that Drs. Herbert W. Boyer of the University of California at San Francisco and Stanley N. Cohen of Stanford University be co-recipients of the Symposium's Distinguished Service Award. It was a memorable meeting, and, when rummaging through some old files that somehow had survived laboratory and home moves, I found two poignant photographs taken at a 1986 Symposium reception. In Figure 1, I am shown with Drs. Whelan, Boyer, and Stanley N. Cohen, and Figure 2 captures Dr. Boyer flanked by the two Stanley Cohens. If I remember correctly, this was the first meeting of the Vanderbilt and the Stanford Stanley Cohens. Of note, the “Vanderbilt Stanley Cohen” is holding his signature corncob pipe. The work of Dr. Whelan and the three distinguished scientists honored at the 1986 Miami Winter Symposium was at the forefront in broadening the burgeoning field of biochemistry and extending it to include genetic engineering and molecular & cell biology. Their pioneering concepts and applications remain in wide use today. The impact of these four individuals on the life sciences and biomedicine has been immense, and over the years this foursome garnered many prestigious awards. To name but a few of these recognitions, Herbert Boyer, Stanley Cohen, and Stanley N. Cohen each received a National Medal of Science Award, and each was recognized with an Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. In addition, Herbert Boyer was a co-founder of Genentech, a highly successful biotech company. The Vanderbilt Stanley Cohen received the Fred Conrad Koch Award of the Endocrine Society and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine the same year he gave the Feodor Lynen Lecture in Miami, the Nobel Prize being shared with his former collaborator, Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini. Bill Whelan was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, was an honorary Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London, became a Fellow of the American Association of Academic Scientists, and received an honorary DSc. degree from La Trobe University, Australia. Complementing his leadership role in the annual Miami Winter Symposium and his original research on the importance of glycogenin as a primer for the initiation of glycogen synthesis, Bill was also effective in integrating biochemistry at the international level and serving as the founder and leading force of a number of biochemistry journals and societies. These accomplishments included: service as the first Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal, BioEssays, and Trends in Biochemical Sciences; Founding Editor of FEBS Letters; Executive Editor of Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics; Editorial Board Member of the Biochemical Journal; cofounder and First Secretary General of FEBS and PAABS; General Secretary and President of the IUBMB; and founder and, along with Dr. Angelo Azzi, co-Editor-in-Chief of IUBMB Life, the latter being a position he held from 2000 to 2020.1 Without question, in addition to being an outstanding biochemist, Dr. Whelan was a quintessential catalyst in promoting not only biochemistry and the burgeoning field of molecular biology, but also the international cooperation of life scientists. Each of these biochemists and molecular biologists continued their groundbreaking research for many years following the 1986 Symposium. It was a pleasure for me, as a mid-career scientist, to have had the unique opportunity to be in the company of such accomplished individuals; indeed, these were an “awesome foursome.” The author declares no conflict of interest.