Fredrickson, Donald (1924–2002)

Donald Fredrickson was an American physiologist and leader in the field of biomedical research who made significant contributions to medicine over the course of four decades. He devised a system of classification of abnormalities in fat transport which was adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO). Fredrickson's classification became an international standard for identifying increased risks of coronary artery disease linked to the consumption of fats and cholesterol. He also discovered two genetic diseases caused by disorders in lipid metabolism. Throughout his career, Fredrickson proved an innovative researcher and an able administrator of the many prestigious institutions he chaired.

Donald Fredrickson was born in Cañon City, Colorado, on August 8, 1924. He attended the University of Michigan which awarded him a bachelor's degree in 1946 and a medical degree in 1949. Fredrickson enrolled for postgraduate studies at Harvard University Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital and, during this period, he was largely supported by his Dutch wife Henriette Priscilla Dorothea Eekhoff. In 1953, Fredrickson started working for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, and was certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 1957. His successful combination of laboratory [Page 690]research with clinical practice allowed him to become director of the National Heart Institute (now National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) in 1966. During Fredrickson's two-year term as director, the South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the first heart transplant in a person.

In 1974, Fredrickson was named the second president of the Institute of Medicine, a healthcare and medical research policy group established in Washington, D.C., by the National Academy of Sciences. A year later, Fredrickson returned to the NIH, becoming its director for the next six years. This was a difficult time to serve as director of the NIH as fears over genetic manipulation were spreading rapidly through the general public and economic stagnation prompted the federal government to reduce public funds for the Institutes. Fredrickson, however, was a painstaking mediator who was able to preserve the freedom of scientific inquiry and, at the same time, to placate public fears of genetic manipulation. He was also capable of assuring a steady influx of funds to the Institutes. In the mid1970s, Fredrickson was appointed personal physician to King Hassan II of Morocco.

After he completed his tenure in 1981, Fredrick-son spent two years as Scholar-in-Residence at the National Academy of Science and then became president, chief executive officer, and trustee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). He died at his home in Bethesda on June 7, 2002.