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Richard J. Solove

January 28, 2011

Richard J. Solove, a dear friend of The Ohio State University, died Jan. 28. He is remembered for his love for OSU’s cancer program, which led to a legacy of support. His contributions enable us to continue our leadership role in the global fight against cancer in its many forms.

Mr. Solove once said that he had never given much thought to a legacy, but he added that he would much rather be remembered for contributing to the eradication of cancer than for anything else. He can rest assured that his passion for the dream he shared with his good friend, Arthur G. James, MD, of bringing a freestanding cancer hospital to central Ohio, along with his unbridled generosity to our cancer program, will always stand out among his many achievements as a prominent businessman and philanthropist in this community.

The Solove name has long been associated with Ohio State and central Ohio. In 1948 he earned a degree in pharmacy here, and he later owned three Columbus drugstores before devoting himself fully to real-estate development in 1962. It was his relationship with Dr. James, a surgical oncologist at Ohio State who treated Mr. Solove’s father for cancer in the 1950s, that drew him closer to our cancer program. In 1977, Dr. James asked him and other Columbus businessmen for help in pursuing a cancer hospital at Ohio State. Mr. Solove worked with Gov. James Rhodes and the Ohio Legislature to secure funding for the hospital.

He was a founding member of The James Foundation Board and served as its president for five years. In 1999, he made a major gift of $20 million for cancer genetics research at Ohio State, after which the University’s Board of Trustees changed the hospital’s name to the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. Cancer again touched his life the following year, when his younger sister, Bernice, succumbed to the disease.

In 2005, gifts from the late Mrs. James, the James family, and friends and former patients of Dr. James established the Dr. Arthur G. and Mildred C. James Professorship in Surgical Oncology. Fittingly, this professorship was bestowed upon William B. Farrar, MD, director of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Ohio State, who trained with Dr. James and later worked as his partner for several years. In early 2006, through a generous gift from Mr. Solove in memory of Dr. and Mrs. James, this professorship attained endowed chair level leading to The Arthur G. and Mildred C. James – Richard J. Solove Chair in Surgical Oncology. Dr. Farrar now holds that chair.

Despite this acclaim, Mr. Solove remained humble whenever he was asked about his charitable contributions, which culminated in his donation to The James of proceeds from the 2007 auction of his collection of 13 vintage Rolls-Royce automobiles. “I’m not doing this to be acknowledged,” he said, explaining that he simply felt very strongly about stopping cancer, a disease that directly or indirectly touches almost everyone.

Mr. Solove also said he was “not interested in being the richest man in the cemetery. To see the rewards of your efforts in life, that is the true virtue.” He indeed saw many rewards of his efforts against cancer. His lasting gift to humanity is that future generations will see even more.

“I know firsthand what it means to be affected by a cancer death, and everyone has or will be affected by cancer sometime,” Mr. Solove said. “I do deeply love this hospital, and the progress that’s been made is incredible. Many significant goals have been fulfilled over the years, and I believe we are at the cusp of even bigger accomplishments and breakthroughs. I hope this philanthropy can be contagious, since we can achieve so much more with the help of our friends and supporters around the country.”

From cancer.osu.edu.

Now playing in a classroom near you

January 19, 2011

by Julia Harris

Very little about the wedding ceremony that took place Jan. 14 on the west side of Columbus could rightfully be called “traditional.”

For starters, the pastor was a girl named Jenna who is not old enough to drive or vote. Second, there were actually three couples who got married, one after the other, and there was a lot of giggling and mumbling of the vows, which were written in an oddly archaic form of English.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of this ceremony was the fact that it happened in a classroom at Wedgewood Middle School, attended by teachers, the school’s principal and roughly 60 students. The wedding feast was an assortment of cookies, lollipops, pretzels, chips and cheesy dip. Continue reading ‘Now playing in a classroom near you’

Oft-cited work came from unexpected collaboration

January 19, 2011

Reuters says Schmittgen’s piece is the most-cited single piece in the last decade

by Jeff McCallister

Counting citations is one way to measure the impact of scholarly writing - it’s not the only way, and it has its detractors, but the fact remains that a journal article that’s cited a large number of times by other scholars does say something about that article.

And Tom Schmittgen, associate professor and chair of the Division of Pharmaceutics in the College of Pharmacy, is coauthor of an article that one citation-counting service rates as the most-cited work of the last decade.

ScienceWatch.com, a division of the Thomson Reuters news service, tracks 22 scientific disciplines through more than 11,000 journals. Early this month, it listed “Analysis of Relative Gene Expression Data using Real-Time Quantitative PCR and the 2(T)(Delta Delta C) Method,” published in the December 2001 edition of the journal Methods, as having more than 10,000 citations, more than any other paper in its index between January 2000 and August 2010.

“The recognition is nice, but it’s especially gratifying to know our work has been so helpful for so many people,” Schmittgen said. “I get e-mails from all over the world asking to use the formulas or for help with them.”

And it was only through unlikely circumstance that the paper was even written at all.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method of duplicating samples of genetic material. It has been directly responsible for astounding leaps in the study and treatment of cancer and other medical conditions as well as the dependable use of DNA testing in criminal cases. It won a Nobel Prize for its inventor in 1993.

A few years later, a scientist named Ken Livak, working in private industry for Applied Biosystems, was on a team that improved on the PCR method. Livak designed a tool to measure DNA quantities as the duplications occur during the chain reaction instead of after the process has run its course. The improvement has enabled PCR to be used in a broad range of new applications.

It was just shortly after the creation of that real-time PCR that Schmittgen used it to collect data for his cancer research while he was on the faculty at Washington State University.

He planned to publish his study, and cited the Applied Biosciences user’s guide for the real-time PCR tool in his article. But reviewers told him such a citation was inappropriate.

Schmittgen, coincidentally, was editing a thematic issue of Methods at the time that dealt with real-time PCR.

He had never met Livak but called him out of the blue to propose putting the user’s guide into an academic format that researchers could freely and appropriately cite in their work.

Schmittgen wrote the majority of the paper in its published form, adding some modifications to the main equation and using additional experimental data from his lab to develop it in a way that would be easy for others to follow.

“Well over half the article was from the original user guide, but we didn’t simply cut and paste and call it done,” Schmittgen said. “The final paper in Methods is very different from the user’s bulletin. This is much more educational to the reader.”

He left Washington State about a year after the Methods issue came out in 2001.

Looking for a comprehensive medical system that included a cancer center, he chose OSU.

All the while, more and more people were finding uses for real-time PCR and so were turning to the Methods article for citation in their own work.

Reuters interviewed him and Livak in 2008 when the article reached No. 3 on its list of most-cited biochemistry articles with about 7,000 citations. Obviously, it’s still a useful document today.

“As I said, my only intention was that I was working on this journal issue and I thought it would make sense to include this paper in the issue and give investigators like myself something in the archival literature to cite. I had no idea it would go so far.”

Game Changers

January 19, 2011

These OSU superstars on the Big Ten Network are educational, not athletic

by Adam King

It’s a catchy name for a show on a sports channel - Game Changers. But the people who fit this moniker and get the spotlight on the Big Ten Network’s newest program are known more for technology than touchdowns, for innovative ideas rather than I-formations.

Game Changers, a half-hour talk show that began airing in December, gives Ohio State faculty, staff and students a venue to showcase advances in education, research, how they’re collaborating with one another and, essentially, how home-grown creativity is making the world a better place. Continue reading ‘Game Changers’

VP for gov’t relations set to return to private practice

January 19, 2011

by Jeff McCallister

Curt Steiner first met Ohio State President Gordon Gee when Steiner was then-Gov. George Voinovich’s chief of staff during the 1990s during Gee’s first term at OSU.

Then, like now, was a difficult time for the state budget, and Steiner had the job of communicating with Gee about cuts to Ohio State’s share.

“It wasn’t easy talking to you in 1991 when higher education was being cut, but it was inspiring,” Steiner wrote to Gee on Jan. 10. “That first connection with you heightened my interest in pursuit of better public policy for higher education.”

Steiner’s reminescence came on the occasion of his resignation as Ohio State’s vice president for Government Relations. Steiner informed Gee of his decision to go back into private practice with the public relations and communications firm he founded and left when he came to OSU in 2004. The resignation is effective Feb. 1. Continue reading ‘VP for gov’t relations set to return to private practice’

Even healthy cats act sick when routine is disrupted

January 19, 2011

by Emily Caldwell

A cat regularly vomiting hairballs or refusing to eat probably isn’t being finicky or otherwise “cat-like,” despite what conventional wisdom might say. There is a good chance that the cat is acting sick because of the stress caused by changes in its environment, new research suggests. Continue reading ‘Even healthy cats act sick when routine is disrupted’

Ancient forest emerges mummified from the Arctic

January 19, 2011

by Pam Frost Gorder

The northernmost mummified forest ever found in Canada is revealing how plants struggled to endure a long-ago global cooling.

Researchers believe the trees - buried by a landslide and exquisitely preserved 2 to 8 million years ago - will help them predict how today’s Arctic will respond to global warming. Continue reading ‘Ancient forest emerges mummified from the Arctic’

OSU faculty rank among highest in new AAAS class

January 19, 2011

Again this year, Ohio State University ranks among the top universities in the number of faculty who have been named as new Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Ohio State tied for second place along with two other institutions - the University of Michigan and Iowa State University - out of 213 institutions whose faculty received this honor.  Each had nine faculty named by the AAAS. Continue reading ‘OSU faculty rank among highest in new AAAS class’

Senate standardizes rules for undergrad research honors

January 19, 2011

by Jeff McCallister

Ohio State now has a way to give undergraduate students recognition for the research they do, even if they’re not enrolled in the honors program.

University Senate approved a measure at its Jan. 13 meeting creating standard university-wide requirements for the process. Continue reading ‘Senate standardizes rules for undergrad research honors’

Top 3 on 2, 1-20-11

January 19, 2011

TOPSPOT: Melinda Freed, who works in Cardiovascular Medicine, has been at OSU for 9 1/2 years

Why did you choose to work at Ohio State? I was working in a student position at the Medical Center when I found out that OSU offers a tuition benefit for full-time employees. I took a job as a file clerk and have been working my way up ever since.

What do you like about your job? I like the sense of community that comes with working at Ohio State. Whether on campus or in the Medical Center, there is a shared sense of belonging that most organizations this large could never achieve. That’s something to be proud of.

What’s the greatest life challenge you’ve overcome? I made a lot of mistakes straight out of high school that have made everything since a little more difficult. Although I sometimes think about how things would be different if I hadn’t made those mistakes, I have to admit that the fact that I rose to the challenge and worked twice as hard to get where I am has made me a stronger and more appreciative person.

How do you apply the ‘One University’ concept? Some of the greatest works are a result of collaboration. This is true of music, literature, science and so much more. We think of ourselves as two entities, Medical Center and university, but our goals are the same. I have met colleagues both within the Medical Center and across the university with whom I share tips on everything from faculty recruitment to event planning to hosting invited professors. We all share a common goal in making this university great. Sharing ideas will only help us get there faster.

Who is your hero? I know it’s cliché, but my mother. She became a single mother of two small children in the early ’80s. She sacrificed everything for us. I didn’t realize how much until I had a family of my own, but I owe her everything and there is no one I respect more.

What is your favorite activity outside of work? I love knitting, reading, crafts with the kids, movies and I play two instruments.

If you weren’t working at Ohio State, what would you rather be doing? I would love to work at a history museum, in particular the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. A lot of people tell me they think that it would be depressing, but I disagree. In spite of the horror of the past, I think it would be fascinating to listen to the individual stories and meet the families of the survivors.

What are you going to do when you retire? I’d like to travel both across the US and overseas.  There are so many amazing things in the world. I want to be able to experience as many of them as I can.

If you were the university president for a day, what would you do? I’d work on making education more accessible to the non-traditional student. Employees of the university highly value the tuition benefit, but it is difficult to schedule classes around work schedules. Hopefully with the change to semesters this is something that can be addressed. I also would rework the “points system” for football tickets. The current system puts even long-term staff at a distinct disadvantage.

To nominate a staff member for an upcoming issue, e-mail oncampus@osu.edu.

TOPNEWS: Law school launches new Corporate Fellowship Program

The Moritz College of Law is launching its inaugural Moritz Corporate Fellowship Program, an innovative initiative that places new Moritz graduates within the general counsel offices of leading national corporations. The fellowships, which follow the judicial clerkship model, will match the specific needs of each corporate partner while putting recent graduates’ top-flight training and ability to immediate use inside the legal departments of major companies.

The program’s inaugural partners are American Electric Power, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. and Scotts Miracle-Gro.

Corporate participants will deploy fellows in a manner that best fits their needs while uniformly providing fellows expansive exposure to the corporation, its legal needs, and the workings of in-house counsel, including the corporation’s interaction with lawyers outside the corporation. Like judicial clerkships, these paid fellowships typically will last between nine and 12 months.

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