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Emeritus Professor of Human Genetics |
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| 4909 Buhl 1241 E. Catherine St. SPC 5618 Ann Arbor, MI 48109 -5618 |
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Professor Richard Tashian was an internationally respected scientist and a revered member of the Department of Human Genetics for more than forty years. He was an expert on molecular evolution and the world's leading expert on the structure, function, genetics, and evolution of the carbonic anhydrase gene family, to which he has devoted more than thirty-five years of his professional life. His scientific obsession with this one group of enzymes brought forth a steady stream of exciting and interesting observations in a variety of fields.
Dr.Tashian's early career was quite different. Following a three-year stint in the US Army Air Corps, serving as a meteorologist in England during World War II he received his Ph.D. from Purdue University studying the population ecology of the dry season avifauna of Southeastern Guatemala. His monograph on this subject is the definitive text, and his collection of specimen is in the American Museum of Natural History. His interests then changed to physiological ecology and, in particular, the adaptation of cold-blooded organisms to temperature change, focusing his studies on the fiddler crab. His exposure to Leslie Dunn in the mid-1950s at Columbia University convinced him that human biochemical genetics was an exciting new frontier to be explored.
One year after the establishment of the Human genetics Department at the University of Michigan, Dr. Tashian joined Dr.Neel's group and began metabolic studies on human blood and urine. Soon these studies focused on two esterase enzymes in red blood cells, which turned out to be the carbonic anhydrases. In 1962 he discovered a rare genetic variant of carbonic anhydrase and in 1966, described, perhaps, the first amino acid substitution in a human enzyme. Over the next three decades, Dr.Tashian applied a series of progressively more sophisticated gene inactivation strategies to explore the structure-function relationships, genetic and evolutionary relationships, and the biology of the carbonic anhydrases. More than three gene families of carbonic anhydrases are now known, containing multiple family members.
Dr. Tashian was the author of more than 150 scientific papers describing the rich variety of this subject. He served as an Associate Editor of Biochemical Genetics since 1966, and as Editor of Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution since 1992. He was the driving force behind the annual isozyme conference, which brought together international authorities in this field, usually in a warm Caribbean location.
Dr. Tashian was also a devoted teacher in the Department of Human Genetics, and more importantly, the mentor for a number of students and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to leadership roles in genetics and other areas of science around the nation and the world. The loyalty of his trainees is legendary and reflects on the warmth and supportive environment he provided as a research mentor.
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