Excellence in Exile: German Emigré Physicians at TUSM

Gerhard Schmidt, M.D. (1901-1981)

Dr. Gerhard Schmidt was "a world authority on nucleic acids and phospholipids" [1].  Due to the crisis in Europe during  the 1930's, Dr. Schmidt came to America and "was involved with medical school for almost forty years" [2]. "During this time he and Dr. Siegfried Thannhauser made a ground-breaking discovery regarding the development of nucleic acid metabolism, introducing a quantitative method for determining DNA and RNA in tissues. The simplicity and reliability of the method continues to play an important role in molecular biology research." [1]

Learn more about Dr. Gerhard Schmidt in:

•  Century of Excellence 
•  Schmidt Memorial Lecture website
• Out of Nazi Germany in Time, a Gift to American Science: Gerhard Schmidt, Biochemist by B. David Stollar

References

[1] Henry H. Banks. Century of Excellence: The History of Tufts University School of Medicine, 1893-1993 (Boston: Tufts University, 1993): 112-

[2] Tufts University. Schmidt Memorial Lecture. Available at: http://medicine.tufts.edu/Education/Academic-Departments/Basic-Science-Departments/Developmental-Molecular-and-Chemical-Biology/Schmidt-Memorial-Lecture. Accessed: March 14, 2014.

Image credit: Tufts University