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Jack Ladenson

e-mail misia_landau@hms.harvard.edu

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A boy maturing in the 1950s would have had a hard time resisting the Horatio Hornblower novels. Set during the Napoleonic wars, the stories, which began appearing in 1938, combine sweeping adventure on the open seas with an interior journey: the rise of Hornblower from self-doubting midshipman to brilliant admiral who, over and over, saves the day and yet rarely thinks of himself as all that heroic.

Jack Ladenson, who was born in 1942, still reads the series. "Hornblower changes from a kid to a man. His fundamentals don’t change, but you watch him evolve as a person," says Ladenson, the Oree M. Carroll and Lillian B. Ladenson Professor of Clinical Chemistry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Some might say the same of Ladenson. He has made some of the most important discoveries in the history of clinical chemistry, holds all the main awards in his field, has trained some of its brightest stars, holds an endowed chair, and has helped to create two others. Yet Ladenson, imposing in appearance and stature, retains an almost old-fashioned sense of modesty. In fact, it is tempting to compare the story of Ladenson’s life to Hornblower’s tale—the rise from humble beginnings, the call to leadership, the life-saving missions—just as one might detect the texture of Ladenson’s character in Hornblower’s humility and his uncanny ability to solve problems.

"We often try to get students . . . [Full Text of this Article]