Eight years ago we had to say our farewells to Professor Samuel (Sam) Sideman (1929–2008) – our mentor, colleague, and friend. Recent progress in the field of biotechnology and nanomedicine would have thrilled and intrigued Sam, who personified early adaptation of progress in scientific research.
Born in 1929 in Haifa, Israel, Sam's passion for science began with a successful career in Chemical Engineering. He received his BSc degree in that field from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, followed by an MSc degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, NY, and a PhD in 1960, also from the Technion. Sam joined the Technion staff in 1957. Following his successful leadership of the Department of Chemical Engineering, he was appointed Head of Biomedical Engineering in 1982, and held the R.J. Matas Winnipeg Chair in Biomedical Engineering from 1982 to 1997. In 1983, Sam initiated and co-founded the Heart System Research Center in the Julius Silver Institute of the Department of Biomedical Engineering with his colleague Rafael Beyar.
Through the Heart System Research Center and, indeed the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Sam's research interests grew to fruition and thrived, exploring fields which today are being actualized in medicine worldwide, fields such as computer simulation of the cardiac system, transport phenomena, and the interactions of parameters affecting cardiac performance. Together with his colleagues Rafael Beyar, Amir Landesberg, and others at the Technion, Sam developed a theoretical model for basic physiology of global cardiac behavior. His most significant work related to his integrated approach to the multivariant cardiovascular system, a pioneering approach that has contributed to our basic understanding of cardiac physiology.
A strong believer in interdisciplinary research and collaboration, he envisioned, chaired, and organized a series of prestigious workshops that resulted in premier international collaborations. The meetings saw a bringing together of the engineering sciences with the medical/physiologic sciences, resulting in working models and quantitative analyses and simulations involving multiparametric multidisciplined studies of the cardiac system. Sam's studies, described in over 400 publications, and the proceedings of his conferences – 20 volumes in total – all bear testimony to his impressive scientific contributions.
May Sam Sideman’s legacy be an inspiration to future generations of interdisciplinary scientists seeking to unravel the mysteries of the human body for the benefit of humankind.
Director, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel
Women's Division/Dr Phillip and Sara Gotlieb Chair
Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, Technion, Haifa, Israel
[email protected]
Amir Landesberg, MD, DSc
Dean, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Technion-IIT, Haifa, Israel
Noah Lotan, PhD
Emeritus Faculty, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Technion-IIT, Haifa, Israel