Millennium Magazine_6th Ed

209 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine As director, she has lent her knowledge to improve the lab’s services for solid organ and bone marrow transplant programs at the UAB, at the Birmingham VA Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Alabama. She is board certified by the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. Living her youth in the Czech Republic, Dr. Hauptfeld-Dolejsek cites her father as her greatest influence. A Nobel Prize-nominated nuclear scientist who was taken away by the German Gestapo, his memory and accomplishments were kept alive by her mother, and his example is what gave Dr. Hauptfeld- Dolejsek the will to succeed. Since that time, she has dedicated more than 40 years to histocompatibility and immunogenetics. Receiving an MS in experimental zoology, Dr. Hauptfeld-Dolejsek subsequently earned a PhD in experimental zoology and embryology, both from Charles University in Prague. She also earned postgraduate scholarships to the Institute of Cancerology and Immunogenetics in France and the Department of Transplantation Biology of the University of Zagreb in Yugoslavia. She completed her doctoral dissertation on transplant immunology, and she is creditedwith thediscovery of class II antigens of the MHC (H-2). After 30 years of defining the structure and function of the MHC gene in mice, she transferred her expertise to the human MHC. Dr. Hauptfeld- Dolejsek has also contributed to Folia Biologica, an international journal renowned for its contributions to the advancement of specialized biology, aswell as over 60 articles to peer-reviewed scientific journals, Science and JEM, among others. Dr. Hauptfeld-Dolejsek was elected to serve on the Accreditation Review Board as regional commissioner for four terms and as president for the American Board for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. S ince 2005, Dr. Vera Hauptfeld-Dolejsek has been the director of the Histocom- patibility and Immunogenetics Labo- ratory at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), as well as an as- sociate professor and professor in the Depart- ment of Surgery. Notably, she is the very first female professor in UAB’s Department of Surgery. VERA HAUPTFELD- DOLEJSEK, PHD, D(ABHI) PROFESSOR, DIRECTOR Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory, University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham, AL HEALTH AND WELLNESS