Article by Scott Durum PhD, NCI NIH
Howard A. Young PhD has announced he is entering emeritus status after four decades at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. The ICIS owes much to Howard and this article seeks to acknowledge his many contributions to us, to other scientific organizations, to scientists and to science.
Forty years ago I interviewed at NCI Frederick for a new immunology group. Joe Oppenheim, who invited me, asked what I thought of Howard Young who I had just met. “Smart guy, nice guy”, two qualities not always linked from my experience at the time.
Howard was quickly establishing himself as THE molecular biologist. He schooled many of the first generation of NIH immunologists in the methods of this exploding new field. His freezer was the repository of cytokine probes that supplied countless labs around the world. This was just the beginning of this modest man’s remarkable career in research, scientific organization and mentoring.
Howard was born in Ossining New York and studied microbiology at U.Mass where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received a PhD in microbiology at the University of Washington studying an RNA polymerase in fungi, and was also remembered as a grad student organizer.
He came to the NCI in Rockville in 1974 as a postdoctoral fellow with Ed Scolnick and within months was publishing papers on activation of mouse mammary tumor virus. He next moved to the NCI Frederick campus as a contract investigator studying Ras. He tried his hand at biotech, at BRL for a few years but was recruited back to NCI Frederick in 1983 by Joe Oppenheim, was tenured in 1989 and he has been a Senior Investigator since 2006.
Howard’s interest in IFNg began in the 80’s and he has made many contributions to understanding this critical cytokine. In recent years the lab has made much use of his mouse model of IFNg overexpression that generates a number of autoimmune phenomena. A research career documented in 369 publications is however only a part of his remarkable career in science.
Within NIH, he started the Spring Research Festival, started the summer intern program for high school students, chaired the Immunology Interest Group Steering Committee, co-founded the Cytokine Interest Group and organized numerous symposia. He is an omnipresent email communicator on all subjects immunological. No day goes by without a note from Howard on symposia, articles, and kudos for award winners. He received three NIH awards for mentoring and he trained a number of remarkable scientists who went on to research careers, and then begat more successful researchers. Howard was also known as the perennial MC at NCI Frederick’s holiday party. This time of year many of us will fondly recall his comic master of ceremonies role, wearing a Santa hat, despite being Jewish. This included drawings and exchange of sometimes embarrassing gifts. This pattern was noted early in his career, a prequel recalled by Sharon Wahl from their grad student days: “Howard ran his department’s ‘‘Party House’’ (including, but not limited to collecting beer money from faculty, weekly football pools, large Thanksgiving gatherings, and salmon fishing trips)”.
Beyond the NIH, Howard was very active in the American Association of Immunologists, is a fellow in the American Society for Microbiology and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and he organized New York Academy of Science symposia. His greatest commitment was to the International Cytokine and Interferon Society (and its progenitor International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research (ISICR), founded originally as the International Society for Interferon Research in 1983). He served as president and in numerous council positions and was a frequent conference organizer. He founded and continuously edited Signals+, the society newsletter, which reported news about members, about cytokines, comments from the president, Gary Larson cartoons, recipes and at least one contentious debate about who discovered what. Howard received the society’s Distinguished Service Award, Honorary Lifetime Membership Award, the inaugural Society Mentoring Award and most recently the society adopted the new name the “ICIS Howard Young Distinguished Service Award.”
Many thanks to Howard from the scientific community, and a tip of the glass from your old friend.
