[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 68 (Friday, May 26, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S5339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CONGRATULATING GERRY FISCHBACH

 Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize Dr. 
Gerald D. Fischbach for his service as the Executive Vice President for 
Health and Biomedical Sciences and Dean of the Faculties of Medicine 
and Health Sciences at Columbia University in New York. Gerry Fischbach 
is a highly respected neuroscientist and educator. I have known Dean 
Fischbach since 1998 when he served as Director of the National 
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NINDS, at the National 
Institutes of Health, NIH, during the Clinton administration.
  As executive vice president and dean, Gerry Fischbach was charged 
with running the Columbia University Medical Center, CUMC, in northern 
Manhattan. The CUMC comprises the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Nursing, the 
College of Dental Medicine, and the Mailman School of Public Health. 
Dean Fischbach worked tirelessly to advance the Medical Center's three 
primary missions, providing high quality patient care, conducting 
innovative biomedical research, and educating generations of doctors, 
scientists, nurses, dentists, and public health professionals.
  Gerry Fischbach is a native of Mount Vernon, New York and graduated 
from Colgate University. After graduating from Cornell Medical School 
in New York City, he completed his internship at the University of 
Washington Hospital in Seattle. In 1966, he began his lifelong 
dedication to research and education at the NIH. Before coming to 
Columbia, Dean Fischbach held Chairmanships at both Harvard University 
and Washington University in St. Louis, and was Director of the NINDS 
at NIH.
  Throughout his career, Dean Fischbach has studied the formation and 
maintenance of synapses, the junctions between nerve cells and their 
targets through which information is transferred. His work has focused 
on the neuromuscular junction, where he pioneered using cultured 
neurons and muscle cells to characterize the biochemical, cellular, and 
electrophysiological mechanisms underlying the development and function 
of this junction. Beginning in the 1970s, Dean Fischbach began to study 
the mechanism by which motor neurons regulate the number of 
acetylcholine receptors on muscle cells. In 1993, this work culminated 
with the purification and cloning of the acetylcholine receptor-
inducing activity, ARIA, protein, which stimulates skeletal muscle 
cells to synthesize acetylcholine receptors. Dean Fischbach's work was 
key in demonstrating that synaptic development relies on biochemical 
mechanisms.
  While at Columbia, Dean Fischbach initiated and implemented a 
strategic planning process and oversaw the completion and dedication of 
the new Irving Cancer Research Center. No stranger to Congress from his 
days at NINDS, he has been active in the effort to expand eligibility 
for federal funding for stem cell research, and has lectured, written, 
and testified before Congress numerous times on the subject. During his 
tenure, he created the Columbia Center for Neuroscience Initiatives and 
the CUMC Stem Cell Consortium, both to promote better understanding of 
the human brain and develop treatments for diseases that affect 
millions of Americans.
  New York is blessed with an abundance of top research institutions 
and teaching hospitals, New York's jewels, as my predecessor Senator 
Moynihan used to call them, and there is no doubt that Columbia's 
medical center is one of the finest in the country. Columbia receives 
more NIH funding than any other New York institution, and two out of 
the past five Nobel Prize winners for Physiology and Medicine have been 
Columbia faculty. I have become very familiar with the outstanding 
clinical care provided by CUMC and the New York Presbyterian Hospital. 
Dr. Craig Smith, the surgeon who operated on my husband, is a Columbia 
faculty member.
  My colleagues may have noticed that the one word I have not used in 
my remarks is ``retire.'' Although Gerry Fishbach may be stepping down 
from his current position, he is not retiring. He will remain an active 
CUMC faculty member and researcher. He also will serve as the 
Scientific Advisor for the Simons Foundation, a New York-based 
foundation dedicated to advancing the basic and clinical frontiers of 
autism research.
  There will be more time to spend with his wife Ruth, a noted 
bioethicist, their children and grandchildren at their home in Wood's 
Hole, and I suspect there may be a few more rounds of golf in his 
future. Gerry Fischbach will continue to do what he has devoted his 
life to: expanding, creating, and disseminating knowledge of the brain 
and working on developing means to treat disease. He will also continue 
to be active on health and science policy issues like stem cell 
research and it would not surprise me, once absolved from the day-to-
day responsibilities of Dean, if he is not more visible on Capitol 
Hill.
  Dean Fischbach is leaving Columbia University Medical Center in good 
hands. Dr. Lee Goldman will assume the executive vice president and 
dean position in late June. A distinguished cardiologist, Dr. Goldman 
comes to Columbia from the University of California San Francisco where 
he is Chair of the Department of Medicine. I want to welcome Dr. 
Goldman to New York and look forward to working with him.
  I ask that my colleagues join me in recognizing this great New 
Yorker, Dr. Gerald D. Fischbach. Congratulations Gerry and best to you 
and Ruth.

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