End of an Era, Six Biology Faculty Members Retire in 2013
The Biology Department congratulated six retiring faculty members at a luncheon in early May. Combined, these six professors served at BU for a total of 249 years!
Biology Faculty Luncheon
Six biology professors (Ian Callard, Elizabeth Godrick, Steve Golubic, Thomas Kunz, Gail Patt, and Sidney Tamm) officially retiring in 2013 are moving on to the next stage of life and to new experiences as Professors Emeritus. Each has played a vital role in the life of the biology department, teaching thousands of students, serving as excellent mentors and helping lead the department. Everyone was particularly pleased that Tom Kunz and his family were able to attend as Tom continues his recovery from a serious accident in 2011. Current faculty members spoke a few words of appreciation for each retiree’s career and contributions at BU. These comments are excerpted below:
Professor Elizabeth Godrick: “Elizabeth begins the next chapter after a successful 40-year career at Boston University. Elizabeth began her education at Bucknell University and then joined Boston University for her Master’s and PhD. She joined Harvard Medical School for a postdoctoral appointment but soon found her way back to Boston University as an Assistant Professor in 1973. She rose through the ranks and was appointed as Full Professor in 1990. Her influence at Boston University is widespread and seen across campus. Her dedication has been apparent in her managerial, administrative, advisory, and professorial roles. Her role as an educator for the University has touched the lives of many students. If my calculations are correct, she has personally taught over 10,000 individual BU students. Elizabeth has been a mentor, role-model, advisor, and friend since I began at BU and I wish her the best of luck.”
Professor Ian Callard: “Ian was born in the UK, received his BSc and PhD from the University of Sheffield, did postdoctoral work at Rutgers, and had faculty appointments at Rutgers and then William & Mary before coming to BU in 1971 as an Associate Professor. He chaired the Biology Department and has published approximately 200 papers, most in the area of comparative endocrinology and reproduction. His research anticipated and examined many of the effects of environmental estrogens on species and human health. He was an environmentalist without a flannel shirt. He studied all manner of generally scary animals from turtles to sharks, to eels. As I understand it, Ian will be spending much of his time in retirement lording over his New World mini-empire that stretches from Maine to Rhode Island, with three children and seven grandchildren. Ian, for your 42 years of service to BU, to the Biology Department, students, scientist, we thank you and wish you well.”
Professor Stjepko Golubic: “Stjepko Golubic was born before WWII in Zagreb, enduring horrors both during and after the war. He obtained a PhD in Biology at the University of Zagreb in 1963 and then fled Yugoslavia with a postdoctoral offer from the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation, rather than having to consider a trek across the mountains on a moonless night. Already he was recognized as a scholar. In 1965, he was invited to Princeton and a year later at Yale University where he was an assistant professor and where Stjepko became Steve. Actually, only half of him became Steve, the other half stayed in Europe where he continued to grow his international reputation. Over the years, he received five Humboldt fellowships, including the senior research prize for lifetime achievement. Steve is driven by a deep curiosity about the natural world. Thus, Stjepko Golubic, Professor Emeritus, will continue his life as usual: inspired by scientific discovery and by his scholarly community and supported by his wife Susan, their friends and family.”
Professor Gail Patt: “On behalf of the entire faculty and staff of the Biology Department, I am pleased to thank Gail Patt for her 50 years of inspired teaching of literally thousands of undergraduates upon the occasion of her retirement at the end of the current academic year. Gail received her PhD in Biology from Boston University in 1963 with a thesis concerning the development of the immune system. Shortly thereafter, Gail began teaching courses in comparative anatomy, morphogenesis, and genetics at Boston University, initially with a joint faculty appointment in the Division of General Education and the Dept. of Biology. More recently, Gail has also taught human physiology and anatomy to students in the Biology Department, Sargent college, and the CAS core curriculum. Gail and her husband, Peter Papesch, live in the Boston Back Bay where they continue to enjoy a rich intellectual life that includes membership in the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement along with regular trips to Austria to visit Gail’s son, Tony Patt, and his family. We all extend our best wishes to Gail in her retirement.”
Professor Thomas Kunz: “Dear Tom, thank you. Tom arrived at BU in 1971. The graduate students in EBE thank you for making Halloween a treasured holiday. The undergraduates thank you for dressing up on Halloween and for taking them to Sargent Camp every fall. The myriad students who have spent a semester in Ecuador visiting the Galapagos and exploring the Amazon, thank you. In the mid 1990’s Tom was approached by two MIT PhDs to help to establish a program in Ecuador. Tom went there to locate a place for the field station. On this exploratory journey they were hijacked by a man with a spear and brought to his house where they “shared” all their rations, and where the man’s children opened up a watermelon and devoured it as if it was a present on Christmas Day. After paying this “toll’ they were released and the Tipituni Biodiversity Station was born. Tiputini has been featured a number of times in National Geographic and described as the most spectacular field station in the world, for its diversity and pristine nature. It is easy to say that the department will no longer be the same now that Tom is retiring, but it will remain the same because of what you created. Your legacy particularly in the Ecology group will endure for a long, long time because of you, and who you are.”
Professor Sidney L. Tamm: “Sidney Tamm is retiring after a 34-year career at Boston University. After earning his PhD at the University of Chicago, Sid did postdoctoral work at the Gatty Marine Laboratory of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and Stazione Zoologica in Naples, Italy. Following faculty positions at Indiana University and the University of Wisconsin, Sid joined the Biology faculty and Boston University Marine Program in 1979. Sid’s research has focused on the structural and molecular mechanisms of locomotion generated by cilia in Ctenophores, a group of marine organisms commonly know as comb jellies and the largest animals that use cilia for locomotion. Supported by continuous funding from NSF and NIH for 26 years, Sid is among the top Ctenophore researchers worldwide. An expert in microscopy, Sid’s upper level courses in advanced cell biology have provided our graduate students with invaluable training. Sid will be continuing his research efforts at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole.”
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