Dr. Gollan: Dr. Mikuls is a ‘special’ scientist’

From left: Irving Zucker, Ph.D., Ted Mikuls, M.D., Harriet Gilmore and John Gollan, M.D., Ph.D., during Friday’s Gilmore Award presentation. Dr. Mikuls received the award for his work in rheumatoid arthritis. The award is named for Harriet Gilmore’s late husband, Joseph P. Gilmore, Ph.D., a distinguished UNMC scientist and administrator who died last April.

College of Medicine Dean John Gollan, M.D., Ph.D., recalls vividly the effort he and others put in to recruit Ted Mikuls, M.D., back to his alma mater.

“I remember (UNMC rheumatologist) Dr. James O’Dell cheering us on as we tried to bring Ted here and I remember throwing everything we had at him to make sure he came,” Dr. Gollan said Friday before he presented the 2008 Joseph P. Gilmore Outstanding Investigator Award to Dr. Mikuls.

Dr. Mikuls represents a traditional scientist who excels in research, patient care and education, Dr. Gollan said.

And it’s such qualities, Dr. Gollan said, that made him an excellent choice for the Gilmore Award.

Dr. Mikuls received the award for his outstanding research and clinical work with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Since arriving at UNMC in 2003, Dr. Mikuls’s RA work has yielded more than 20 publications, two federal grants and has advanced RA research on a national level.

It’s this sort of effort and productivity that justified the effort UNMC made to bring the 1995 College of Medicine graduate back to Omaha from the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

“In Ted, we have a very special person,” Dr. Gollan said.

The Gilmore Award is named in honor of distinguished UNMC scientist and administrator — Joseph P. Gilmore, Ph.D., who died last April in Tarpon Springs, Fla., at the age of 79.

Several members of his family, including his wife, Harriet, were on hand for Friday’s ceremony, which included remarks about Dr. Gilmore’s career from Irving Zucker, Ph.D., professor and chairman of the UNMC Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology Department.

Dr. Zucker came to UNMC in 1972 to work under Dr. Gilmore and said the late scientist helped establish the medical center as a leader in cardiovascular and renal research.

“Joe was a dedicated and talented scientist who helped many of us progress in our research and careers,” Dr. Zucker said.

“In Ted, we have a very special person.” John Gollan, M.D., Ph.D.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Dr. Gilmore was professor and chairman of the UNMC Department of Physiology and Biophysics from 1970 to 1987. Before coming to UNMC, he worked at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., and the University of Virginia College of Medicine.

The Joseph P. Gilmore Award was established by the department of physiology and biophysics upon Dr. Gilmore’s retirement in 1987 to recognize outstanding research contributions by young UNMC faculty members. It is awarded annually at a formal convocation and lectureship.