1957 For a kid who grew up in the 1940s during an era when few rural schools offered chemistry or physics classes, Dr. Robert Purcell has made a name for himself in the world of science. Purcell, a 1957 chemistry alumnus of OSU, is the co-chief of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The boy from Haileyville, Okla., now oversees more than 100 scientists who study and seek cures for viruses including West Nile and hepatitis. Purcell arrived at the institute in 1963. “After the first 15 years, I came to the realization that I was going to stay here,” he says. “It’s a very positive lab to work in and just an exciting place to be.” Purcell’s journey has taken him from Eastern Oklahoma A&M Junior College in Wilburton, where his love of science blossomed, to OSU and then to medical school at Baylor and Duke Universities. Land-Grant Institution Prepared Him Well In 1962, Purcell completed an internship in pediatrics at Duke Hospital in Durham, N.C. Practicing medicine was not his goal, however. Gaining invaluable medical knowledge was. The tools he gained were for his one passion — scientific research. In 1963, Purcell became an officer at the prestigious Epidemic Intelligence Service for the Communicable Diseases Center in Atlanta. After a crash course in epidemiology, Purcell’s next stop was the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, where he has been ever since. The newcomer’s assignment? Work on vaccine evaluation. The 72-year-old says his most important research findings were somewhat unexpected. Purcell recalls his mentor and lab chief, Robert Chanock, walking from lab to lab trying to convince one of the scientists to tackle hepatitis virus research. Purcell, who has played a major role in the development of all five hepatitis vaccines available today, was at the end of the line. “I was the low man on the totem pole,” he says. “Working on hepatitis A has opened up all these other possibilities,” he says. “That period was a wonderful convergence of history and science because at that time nothing — I mean nothing — was known about viral hepatitis.” Purcell holds more than 45 U.S. patents and has published more than 700 papers. He is the recipient of more than 40 honors, including the U.S. Public Health Service Distinguished Service Award and the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine, and holds membership in the National Academy of Sciences. His tenure as president of the Arts and Sciences Student Council seems a long time ago. In his two years at Oklahoma A&M, he recalls most hours were in the chemistry lab where he found a mentor in larger-than-life Virginia Lippert, who was a chemistry faculty member from 1946 until 1980. “She was very influential in my career and just an outstanding person in her own right,” he says. “I was the last class to graduate from Oklahoma A&M before the name change,” says Purcell who is proud of OSU’s landgrant history. “I see having that historic name on my diploma as a real plus. “It’s a place that put me in good stead.” Lorene Roberson STUDENT COUNCIL OSU Special Collections Oklahoma State University 3
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