BY JOYCE THOMAS
Stephen J. Galli, MD, professor of pathology and microbiology and immunology, has been named chair of the Department of Pathology and the first Mary Hewitt Loveless, MD, Professor in the School of Medicine, effective March 1. Originally a research fund, the gift from the Mary Hewitt Loveless Estate was recently designated for the establishment of the new professorship at the direction of medical school Dean Eugene A. Bauer, MD.
Galli, who joined Stanford this year, replaces Klaus Bensch, MD, as pathology chair. Bensch stepped down from the department leadership post, after serving as chair since 1984 including one year as acting chair. He came to Stanford as a professor in 1968 after several years on the faculty at Yale University School of Medicine.
"Klaus Bensch has been an outstanding leader in pathology. I am grateful for his many years of service to the department and the school. We are fortunate to have such a talented new leader to step into the post. Stephen Galli will provide a strong vision for the department," said Dean Bauer.
Before coming to Stanford, Galli, a 1973 Harvard Medical School graduate, had been on the Harvard faculty since 1979, serving as professor since 1993. His postdoctoral training included a residency and several research fellowships at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and at Harvard. He also served as director of the pathology research laboratories at Beth Israel Hospital and as director of the division of experimental pathology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Galli's many professional affiliations include membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation and election to the Association of American Physicians. He is a fellow of the Molecular Medicine Society and a recently elected councilor of the American Society for Investigative Pathology. Galli's major research interests include mast cell and basophil development and function and allergy, immunology and inflammation, particularly allergic inflammation.
Loveless, who was one of only two
women in the Stanford School of Medicine class of 1925, gained
recognition early in her career as an established medical scientist
and research physician. While on the faculty at Cornell University
Medical School, she began research that culminated in the first
design for immunotherapy against life-threatening anaphylaxis from
insect stings. She retired from Cornell in 1964 but continued her
commitment to research and to patients until her death in 1991 at
the age of 92. She directed her estate to carry on that commitment
by providing research funding to Stanford. SR