Author: [AUTHOR] Published on 2/1/2022 12:00:00 AM

David J. Greenblatt, MD, Professor, Tufts University, Boston, MA

What Does Receiving the 2022 Oscar B. Hunter Career Award Mean to You?
The honor leaves me speechless, especially being on the same list as individuals whose shoelaces I could never hold. My retrospective view of more than 50 years in clinical pharmacology, and what it all meant, has been warmed.

What is Your Favorite Society Memory?
For me, it all started at the 1973 Annual Meeting at the Monteleone Hotel in New Orleans – my first ASCPT meeting. The group was small, friendly, jovial, and intimate. I brushed elbows with scientists whose papers I had read and admired (including future Hunter awardees). I knew I had chosen the right profession.

Who Has Inspired You in Your Career?
The list is long, and my apologies to those I cannot name due to space. To start with, it has always been my wife and son, who themselves are distinguished physicians and scientists. My late parents – also both physicians and scientists – were an inspiration the whole way. My three principal mentors were: Richard I. Shader (still a colleague to this day), who pioneered psychopharmacology; the late Jan Koch-Weser, who hooked me on pharmacokinetics; and Hershel Jick, who taught me the way around and through the epidemiology of adverse drug reactions.

What Professional Accomplishment Are You Most Proud of?
I am most proud of the success of the students and fellows that I have had the privilege of working with. So often, it has worked exactly the way it should: in the first year, you teach them; in the second year, we are about even; thereafter, they teach me.

What Was Your Childhood Dream Job?
I then held, and still hold to to this day, the same aspirations, or rather fantasies: I want to be either the catcher for the Boston Red Sox, or the offensive right guard for the New England Patriots. Life’s message from early on was that deficiencies in size and talent rendered both career paths impossible. Still, baseball captivates me, I played competitive amateur baseball until age 60.

When You Aren’t Working, How Do You Spend Your Free Time?
My wife, son, and I are all relentless exercise nuts – we spend many hours in the gym, out walking, or (in the old days) running. Being physically wiped out helps defuse workplace stress. Re-runs of famous TV series (The Americans, The Office, The West Wing, and the Sopranos) are mesmerizing and relaxing.

David has been a member of ASCPT since 1974.