The Shirley Johnson Memorial Lecture

 
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The Shirley Johnson Memorial Lecture

Shirley Johnson photo Shirley Alma Johnson was born April 15, 1922 in Mervin, Saskatchewan, Canada, and died September 11, 1970 in Washington, DC.  She received her PhD in Physiology from the University of Toronto in 1949.  Her first position was teaching physiology at the College of Osteopathy and Surgery, Kirksville, MO.  Her outstanding career in the field of coagulation was launched between 1951 and 1956 as a research associate and later as friend and colleague of Professor Walter H. Seegers in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.  Her early interests encompassed the plasma coagulation factors, but became focused on the ultrastructure and pathophysiology of platelets.  Her later publications dealt mainly with the interaction of platelets with the fibrin clotting mechanisms and the vascular endothelium.  The careful, systematic research establishing the endothelial supporting function of platelets could serve as a model for any investigators in the field of hemostasis and thrombosis.

Dr. Johnson headed the Divisions of Coagulation at the Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit (1956-1960); the Milwaukee County General Hospital (1960-1963); Wood Veterans Administration Medical Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1963-1966); and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, Washington, DC (1967-1970) with faculty appointments at Wayne State University, Marquette University College of Medicine, Georgetown and George Washington Colleges of Medicine, respectively.  She was a very active member in the ISTH and the early ICTH.

Her 96 scientific publications and the five books she co-authors and co-edited remain as monuments to the industry, talent and effective life-style of a dedicated and talented scientist.

This lectureship is dedicated to a great lady who inspired excellence in her students and associates.  She loved people, literature, music and travel.  She was beloved in the international scientific community and will ever be remembered by all who knew her.

The Shirley A. Johnson Memorial Lecturers

1972    Walter H. Seegers
1973    J. Fraser Mustard
1975    G.V.R. Born
1977    Bengt Samuelsson
1979    John R. Vane
1981    Ernst Luscher
1983    Johan Stenflo
1985    Inga Marie Nilsson
1987    Ralph L. Nachman
1989    -the late Theodore S. Zimmerman
            (by Z.M. Ruggeri)
1991    Edward F. Plow
1993    Harold R. Roberts
1995    Barry Coller
1997    Graham Jamieson
1999    Robert D. Rosenberg
            (Yale Nemerson, lecturer)
2001    Robert D. Rosenberg
2003    Bonno N. Bouma
2005    David Phillips
2007    Johannes Oldenburg
2009    Helen Hobbs