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U.
Penn. chemist and pharmaceutical innovator receives Mendel Medal
Maureen McKew
 On
Saturday evening, March 13, Dr. Ralph Hirschmann, the Rao Makineni Professor
of Organic Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, received the 2004
Mendel Medal. The Rev. Edmund J. Dobbin, O.S.A., University president,
was scheduled to present the medal during the annual Mendel dinner, which
took place in the Villanova Room of the Connelly Center. Earlier in the
day, Hirschmann delivered a public lecture titled “Somatostatin:
A Fascinating Molecule.” The lecture was sponsored by the University
chapter of Sigma XI, the Scientific Research Society.
Hirschmann has made what are described as seminal contributions to organic,
medicinal and bioorganic chemistry for more than 50 years. A native of
Bavaria, Germany, he came to the United States as a teenager and earned
a bachelor of arts degree from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1943.
After three years of military service, during and after the Second World
War, he began graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin (Madison)
and received his doctorate in 1950.
That same year, he joined Merck Research Laboratories as a process research
chemist. By the time he retired in 1987, he was senior vice president
of chemistry and basic research. He and his team discovered and/or developed
several major drugs, including Vasotec, Lisinopril, Primaxin, Ivomec,
Mevacor and Proscar. In 1954, he discovered the steroidal C-nor-D-homo
rearrangement. During the 1960s, he co-directed the first solution total
synthesis of an enzyme, ribonuclease S (RNase S).
In 1987, Hirschman began a second career at the University of Pennsylvania,
where he initiated collaborative research in the field of peptidomimetics.
Hirschman has been recognized with three honorary degrees and three endowed
lectureships. Three chairs are linked to his name. Among his other awards
are the Merck & Co. Inc. Board of Directors Scientific Award and the
National Academy of Sciences Ward for the Industrial Application of Science.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a senior fellow of
the Institutes of Medicine of the National Academies, and a fellow of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Hirschmann’s award marked the thirty-fourth presentation of the
Mendel Medal. It was first awarded in 1929 and given annually until 1943.
Between 1946 and 1968, the medal was awarded eight times. Past recipients
have included Nobel Laureates, outstanding medical researchers, pioneers
in physical astrophysics and chemistry, and noted scientist-theologians.
In 1993, Villanova reestablished the Mendel Medal to confirm its original
purpose of honoring the achievements and memory of Augustinian friar Gregory
Mendel (considered to be the father of genetics) as well as the work of
an outstanding contemporary scientist.
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