Fishman, William Harold

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FISHMAN, WILLIAM HAROLD

FISHMAN, WILLIAM HAROLD (1914–2001), biochemist. Fishman was born in Winnipeg, Canada, and became a U.S. citizen c. 1942. He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan (1935) and got his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Toronto (1939). After postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh (1940) and Cornell University Medical School (1941), he joined the Bowman-Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, followed by the University of Chicago (1945) and Tufts University, Boston (1948–76), where he became professor of pathology and first director of the Tufts Cancer Research Center (1971). In 1976 he and his wife and colleague Lillian Fishman founded the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation (now the Burnham Institute), where he worked for the rest of his life. Fishman's research concerned the relationship between normal cell development and cancer (oncodevelopmental biology), and identifying markers for diagnosing cancer. His honors included the annual award from the International Society for Oncodevelopmental Biology and Medicine (1994), which recognized his pioneering role in this field.

[Michael Denman (2nd ed.)]