Gerhard Schmidt Bio

Gerhard Schmidt

(1901-1981)

Gerhard Schmidt, M.D., was a great scientist and a great humanist. A man of charm and charisma, a noted researcher and a devoted educator, he combined brilliance, humor, idealism and apparent simplicity in an extraordinary way. Professionally known for his work in nucleic acid and phospholipid metabolism, he was as deeply involved in areas as diverse as chamber music and literature. His lectures combined his intense love of his subject, with occasional quotes from Shakespeare or Goethe. In 1928 he had written a classic paper describing enzymatic processes of deamination. He joined the Tufts faculty in 1940. His contributions to the development of nucleic acid metabolism, describing a quantitative method for determination of DNA and RNA in tissues, played an important role in molecular biology research. He was a world authority in the field of nucleic acids and phospholipids. In 1973, the same year in which he was named professor emeritus at Tufts, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He worked regularly at his laboratory almost until his death on April 24, 1981. A final tribute to a life of devotion to science and to humanism is the establishment of the Gerhard Schmidt Memorial Lectureship at Tufts, a memorial that embodies so many of his beliefs and ideals. Contributions to this memorial to insure its continuation will be gratefully accepted at the Department of DMCB, Tufts University School of Medicine, 136 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111.