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Copyright © 1980 Ohio Acad. Sci. 0030-0950/80/0005-0195 $2.00/0 HIGHLIGHTS OF A CAREER IN MEDICAL SCIENCE1- 2 LIBERATO JOHN A. DiDIO, Dean of Graduate School, Medical College of Ohio at Toledo, Caller Service 10008, Toledo, OH 43699 OHIO J. SCI. 80(5): 195, 1980 In thinking about this presentation, I anatomist and to devote my life to dis- decided to share with you the highlights assembling, studying, and analyzing one of my career as a scientist, which on this of Nature's masterpieces. My lifelong ceremonious occasion may be considered learning has led me to an appreciation, the confessions of an Academy President, highlighted by a continuing sense of and to dedicate the presentation espe- wonder, of the miracle of life and the cially to the young scientists of Ohio. human body. From the practical stand- I should alert you, however, that as a point, my decision to be an anatomist physician who is concerned with pre- was to serve mankind through my work ventive medicine, I will not deliver a as a scientist and educator. I later purely serious speech. Science is serious, came to realize that I recreated in my but not necessarily sad—as you shall own life the same situation that existed see, I have thoroughly enjoyed my life at the creation of the world. When it as a scientist. was asserted that God must have been a Trained as a surgeon, early in my surgeon, as only through surgery could career I made the decision to become an He first perform the costectomy in Adam to create Eve, an anatomist pro- Manuscript received 28 June 1980 and in re- tested, saying that God first had to know vised form 8 July 1980 (#80-36). anatomy in order to find the proper rib. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS—Presented at the 89th Annual Meeting of the Ohio Acad- At that point, an educator intervened, emy of Science held at The University of To- exclaiming: Everyone knows that in the ledo, Toledo, OH on 20 April 1980. Dr. beginning there was chaos and who knows Liberato J. A. DiDio, Dean of the Graduate better than educators how to create School and Chairman and Professor of Anatomy at the Medical College of Ohio, served as Presi- chaos? So, while creating chaos, I have dent of The Ohio Academy of Science 1979- had an opportunity to do some research, 1980. He received his B.S., M.S., M.D. and to teach, and ultimately to help my fel- Ph.D. degrees, all summa cum laude, from the low humans during our sojourn on this University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. After 21 years in academic medicine at Brazilian uni- lovely planet. versities, he became a research Fellow at New I became a scientist because I felt that York City's Rockefeller University and later I could reach many more human beings moved to Northwestern University as Professor of Anatomy. He was appointed Chairman of if, instead of treating patients individ- the Department of Anatomy at the Medical ually, I could, as a result of my investi- College of Ohio in 1966 and Dean of the Gradu- gations, make a discovery that would uate School in 1972. The University of Toledo benefit untold numbers of people. I chapter of Phi Kappa Phi cited him as a dis- tinguished member and the International In- recognized that in this respect I was on stitute of Greater Toledo presented him with very thin, idealistic, ground; but an in- the Golden Key Award. Proficient in 5 lan- nate optimism sustained my hope that I guages, Dr. DiDio has published well over one could succeed. Early in life, I believed hundred scientific papers. His many international honors include Honorary President of that instead of looking at things and ask- the Pan American Association of Anatomy, the ing why, one should aim for impossible Order of Merit in Medicine of the Republic of dreams, asking why not? As psychi- Brazil, the Andreas Vesalius Award from the atrists have attempted to explain such Mexican Society of Anatomists, the Medal for Cultural Merit of the Republic of Italy, and illusions of grandeur, they state that it the Rorer Award from the American Society of is normal to be an arsonist at age 18 and Gastroenterology. a fireman at 25. With the naivete and 195 196 LIBERATO JOHN A. DiDIO Vol. 80 determination characteristic of youth, I ing a broad view of the subject. While promised myself that I would be the top some of my colleagues were devoting student in my class, and would devote their efforts to becoming experts in the myself to mastering everything that my subspecialties of anatomy, as a young instructors taught. Knowing how ca- Don Quixote, I tried to master all of them pricious grading systems and individual —an almost impossible dream. teacher's judgments can be, not to men- The next problem was to select a tion personal preferences and biases, it mentor who could serve as a paradigm in can readily be seen that much juvenile my idealistic quest. I selected Professor boldness was involved in the goals I had Renato Locchi (1896-1978), who ulti- set for myself. mately became my spiritual father. Another goal was to acquire broad Under this inspiring teacher, physician, knowledge of the medical sciences and, pharmacist, anatomist, and philosopher, at the same time, to perform investiga- I began to study the incidence of Whit- tions into different areas and levels of nall's orbital tubercle (DiDio 1942) in structure of the human body utilizing a the human zygomatic bone (fig. 1), variety of techniques, striving to be both which was rarely mentioned in anatomy eclectic in medical biology and profound textbooks. I wondered then whether in each field at the vanguard of science. the absence of description was due to the If successful, I would be able to grasp the lack of confirmation in finding the promi- means of attack for each scientific prob- nence or due to the negligence of anato- lem from different angles without losing mists toward the relatively recent dis- the general view of the main field and pos- covery by Whitnall in 1911. While sibly of adjacent fields as well. Ulti- searching the literature on the subject, I mately, my aim was to acquire a deep in- studied 285 skulls and found, among sight into each problem while maintain- many other data, that the prominence FIGURE 1. Anterior view of a human male, adult skull showing the eminentia orbitalis (arrows) of the zygomatic bone in each orbit. Ohio J. Sci. A CAREER IN MEDICAL SCIENCE 197 occurred in 89% of the cases—91% in structure—Oddi's sphincter—and even to males and 82% in females. Surrounded one of its diseases—Odditis. It has be- by numerous skeletons in an enormous come one of the most widespread eponyms osteology museum, where the deep silence in the world's medical literature. As an was broken only by my pen as it com- investigator studying the orbit, I felt that mitted my observations to paper, I can- I had already become a doctor of phi- not describe the awe of that moment. losophy in the eminentia orbitalis—a Suffice it to say that what started as a minuscule prominence on the skull, but a seemingly macabre investigation, work- gigantic structure for a neophyte medical ing in solitude among a multitude of student and incipient young anatomist. human skulls, became an exciting ex- Life would later teach that dimensions perience. Those lifeless skulls were trans- shrink in relation to the scientist's age— formed through intense and devoted another aspect of one's relativity. study from objective research material In retrospect, the eminentia orbitalis to sensible, although inert, individuals. project was the first highlight of a sci- They became my new, quiet, docile entific career and a honeymoon with friends, and I became their admirer. science that is still going on. In fact, By the time the investigation was com- while perusing an issue of the Folia pleted, I had developed from a naive, Anatomica Japonica, in which I was idealistic student into an embryonic searching for an article on the orbital scientist who had found life in death, for eminence, I happened to open to page through those dead skulls I had found 105—a lucky accident—where I found a my life as a scientist. The same friend- most unusual paper by Okamoto (1922) ship later developed with 100 patients describing a narrowing of the left common who volunteered to participate in a study iliac vein. I will refer to this research to observe and detect the orbital emi- project later, as it eventually became my nence in vivo. I came to know each of thesis topic for the doctor of science them by name and I am still grateful to degree. each and every one. Having decided to begin work in the In the realm of science, the study noted chemistry laboratory of the physiology above confirmed that the bony projection department, I had to give up promising was found in almost all cases and demon- careers in baseball, basketball, fencing, strated it with x-rays for the first time and soccer, forgetting about "mens sana in living individuals. The morphology in cor pore sano ..." This new activity studies justified a change in its name to would familiarize me with and, if possible, eminentia orbitalis. My paper received lead me to master the basic techniques recognition when Terry and Trotter commonly utilized in experimental re- (1953) quoted it in their chapter on search at the molecular level of biological osteology in Morris' Human Anatomy.

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