Millennium Magazine_3rdEd

40 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine EDUCATION Laboratory (SEATO LAB) in Bangkok, Thailand, Dr. Finkelstein served as an associate professor and full professor in the department of microbiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center between 1967 and 1979. Thereafter, he transferred to the University of Missouri, where he was a professor and chairman of the department of molecular microbiology and immunology, a Millsap Distinguished Professor and Curators’ Professor from 1979 until attaining emeritus status in 2000. He has also remained a consultant for several biomedical and molecular microbiology companies. As a testament to his success, Dr. Finkelstein has received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society for Microbiology, the Sigma Xi Research Award and Chancellor’s Award from the University of Missouri, and the Robert Koch Prize from the Federal Republic of Germany. Notably, he was also nominated for a Nobel Prize in 1976. B efore attending the University of Oklahoma at just 16 years old, Dr. Richard Alan Finkelstein took microbiology at the Bronx High School of Science in NewYork, which prompted his interest in the field. After earning a BS from the University of Oklahoma, he went on to attend the University of Texas at Austin, where he received an MA and PhD. While attending the University of Texas, he served as a teaching fellow and research scientist, later becoming an instructor upon receiving his doctorate. For more than 50 years thereafter, he studied the effects of the disease cholera. Among his notable achievements, Dr. Finkelstein is renowned for conducting the first purification of the cholera enterotoxin, choleragen and the first purification of heat-labile enterotoxin from strains of Escherichia coli that cause diarrhea. Holding a patent for a live attenuated candidate cholera vaccine, he discovered the coli toxin. He also studied the role of iron in host-parasite interactions and bacterial metabolism. Impressively, he has contributed 240 articles on cholera, enterotoxins, gonorrhea and the role of iron in host-parasite interactions to scientific journals. His wife, Dr. Mary Boesman, participated in many of these studies for 31 years until her passing in 2007. After a brief stint as deputy chief and chief of the department of microbiology with the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization’s Medical Research RICHARD ALAN FINKELSTEIN, PHD MICROBIOLOGY RESEARCHER (RETIRED), CONSULTANT, PROFESSOR EMERITUS University of Missouri School of Medicine Columbia, MO