Gerald Fischbach - Difficult times at Columbia University (44/75)

To listen to more of Gerald Fischbach’s stories, go to the playlist:    • Gerald Fischbach (Scientist)   Gerald Fischbach (b. 1938) is an American neuroscientist and pioneering researcher. He pioneered the use of nerve cell cultures to study the electrophysiology, morphology and biochemistry of developing nerve-muscle and inter-neuronal synapses. [Listener: Christopher Sykes; date recorded: 2023] TRANSCRIPT: Being the dean... actually, my title was Executive Vice President for Health and Biomedical Sciences, it was a long title, was a very difficult job. Because it meant dealing with a very aggressive hospital who was fighting with the medical school at every turn over money, over prestige. The president of the hospital, Herb Pardes, was a former dean. He was a tough guy. Effective, but tough. I learned a lot about biomedical science and medical politics, dealing on a very different level from the department. It was more on a very political and financial level. If you've ever been to Columbia, P&S, now called the Vagelos School. To give you an idea of how unrealistic I was, I proposed building on top of a sports center or on top of a parking garage, a hotel for patients. It could be done, and I think the individuals were willing, but the city was not, and I didn't have any skill in dealing with politics at that level. Take an elevator up above the sports center to two floors. It was a huge center, the whole block, to make that a hotel for parents of patients, children would have been ideal, but didn't get much of a hearing. But there were many other things that we did at Columbia. But, again, there was recruitment, there was dealing with the college when the new president was appointed back there, there was an effort to consolidate resources from the medical school to the college. I don't know if that makes sense to you, but things like royalties on inventions, the college wanted more control over, so we lost money that way.