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April 28, 2015, Volume 61, No. 32 |
Hazel I. Holst, Plastic Surgery
Shiro Takashima, Bioengineering
Hazel I. Holst, Plastic Surgery
Hazel I. Holst, a former surgeon and associate professor emerita of surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, died of complications after surgery at Crozer Chester Medical Center in Upland, Pennsylvania on April 9. She was 83 years old.
Dr. Holst was born in Minneapolis and earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota. She moved to Philadelphia to attend the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania and graduated with a medical degree in 1958. She then trained in Washington, DC and Pikeville, Kentucky before beginning a four-year residency in general surgery at Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia, now known as the Medical College of Pennsylvania.
In 1964, Dr. Holst came to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) as a resident in plastic surgery and instructor in plastic and reconstructive surgical research. In 1971, she became assistant professor of surgery and assistant chief of plastic surgery service in the department of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. In 1976, she attained the rank of associate professor of surgery. Her specialty was hand surgery and use of the microscope in the repair of the hand. Dr. Holst became associate professor emerita in 1997.
Dr. Holst was the first female member of the Plastic Surgery Research Council and the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery. She was also a member of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the American Medical Association, the American Society for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the Society for Cryobiology and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. She served as a special consultant on the Surgical Drugs Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration and as treasurer of the Robert H. Ivy Society of Plastic Surgeons.
Dr. Holst is survived by her former husband, Merle Broberg; three sons, Richard, Robert and Chris; one daughter, Rebecca; four grandchildren; three step-grandchildren; and one sister.
A celebration of Dr. Holst’s life will be held on Saturday, June 20 at the Wyndham Alumnae House, Bryn Mawr College, 101 N. Merion Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010. |
Shiro Takashima, Bioengineering
Shiro Takashima, professor emeritus in Penn’s department of bioengineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, died on March 14. He was 91 years old.
Dr. Takashima earned his undergraduate degree in biology in 1947 and his PhD in biochemistry in 1954, both from the University of Tokyo in Japan. During his doctoral work, he served as an instructor at the University of Tokyo. After receiving his degree, he came to the United States as a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota from 1955 to 1957. He then worked as a research associate at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania from 1957 to 1959. Dr. Takashima returned to Japan in 1959 as a faculty member at the University of Tokyo and later at Osaka University for several years.
Dr. Takashima then came back to Philadelphia and joined Penn’s engineering faculty as an assistant professor in 1964. He was promoted to associate professor in 1970 and became a full professor in 1975. He served as the Bioengineering Graduate Group chair from 1976 to 1978. Dr. Takashima was one of the founding members of today’s department of bioengineering and was a close colleague of the late Herman Schwan. As one of the first Japanese scientists to come to the United States after the war, Dr. Takashima was regarded as a leader and mentor in Philadelphia’s Japanese community.
Dr. Takashima was a pioneer in the area of physical and electrical properties of membranes in what we would now consider the field of neuroengineering. Beginning with seminal work describing the effect of electric fields on altering the function of important biological molecules that included DNA, hemoglobin and albumin, Dr. Takashima also explored the functional properties of individual cells after they were exposed to electric fields. This latter work soon focused on the mechanisms regulating the propagation of electrical signaling in axons, leading to new insights into how neuronal networks are developed and maintained over their lifetime. Dr. Takashima was the author of a contemporary comprehensive book and key reference in this field, Electrical Properties of Biopolymers and Membranes, published in 1989.
Dr. Takashima retired from Penn in 1993.
According to Dr. Takashima’s colleagues, he was highly regarded by generations of students for his thoughtful and kind nature and was a wonderful mentor and teacher. Students frequently sought his counsel if they experienced difficulty with a course, a research project or an experimental design. He was praised for his capacity for listening, empathizing with their concerns and offering constructive suggestions.
Dr. Takashima is survived by his wife, Yuki; one daughter, Nozomi; one son, Makato; and four grandchildren, Matteo, Masao, Kenji and Jamie. |
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