It is with deep sadness that I inform you of the passing of Dr. Elliot S. Vesell, founding chair of the Department of Pharmacology at the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and assistant dean of graduate studies at the Penn State College of Medicine.

Dr. Elliot Vesell was born in New York City on December 24, 1933 and passed away on July 23, 2018. He attended primary school at the Horace Mann School at Columbia University and went on to graduate high school from Philips Exeter Academy. He attended Harvard College where he majored in American Literature and History, and graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He then went to Harvard Medical School, graduating Magna Cum Laude as well. Dr. Vesell did his postdoctoral training at the Rockefeller University in New York. He was Head of the Section on Pharmacogenetics in the Laboratory of Chemical Pharmacology (under the leadership of Bernard B. Brodie) at the NIH when he was recruited to Penn State in 1968.

Over the course of his career, Elliot served Penn State and the scientific community admirably. He remained in his role as chair of pharmacology for 32 years and was the assistant dean of graduate studies for more than 22 years. Elliot was named an Evan Pugh Professor, Penn State’s highest honor, and later a professor emeritus. He retired from the College of Medicine in 2008.

Elliot was nationally and internationally recognized by the scientific community. His research in human twin studies led to the publication of seminal papers about the genetic factors of variable drug response from person to person. This work was critical in establishing the scientific field of pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics. It was Elliot’s research, in part, that laid the foundation for personalized medicine, one of the great new frontiers in modern medicine. His work is immortalized on the walls of Penn State Institute for Personalized Medicine, where the DNA sequence for a gene that was instrumental in his early pharmacogenetics research is represented.

He published nearly 350 scientific papers, edited several books and received numerous awards throughout his career, including four major national awards in clinical pharmacology. In addition to his contributions to science, Elliot devoted his life to helping others.

You can watch a short video with some historic footage of Dr. Vesell. Or, read the 2009 Penn State story about his retirement.

Elliot was preceded in death by his wife, Kristen, and leaves behind two daughters, Liane and Hilary.