Jeffrey M. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D.
Career Highlights

Born July 20, 1954, in Orlando, Florida; Raised in Long Island, New York

EDUCATION
Undergraduate degree: B.S., Biology, Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York

Graduate degrees: M.D., Albany Medical College of Union University, Albany; Ph.D., Molecular Biology, The Rockefeller University, New York

Life on Long Island: “Growing up there was just like any other suburban place. A zillion kids on bicycles and playing sports constantly.”

From bedside to bench: When Friedman decided he wanted to leave medicine to pursue a career in science, he sent letters to labs around the country. “All except one wrote back and said, 'I think you should do a postdoc, but just not with me.'” Nobel laureate David Baltimore wrote Friedman a “nice letter” saying that Rockefeller University was “a perfect place for someone finishing an M.D.”

POSTGRADUATE TRAINING
1977–1980: Internship and residency, Albany Medical Center Hospital, Albany
1980–1981: Postgraduate fellow, Cornell University Medical College, New York
1984–1985: Postdoctoral fellow, The Rockefeller University, New York

KEY APPOINTMENTS
1986, 1991, 1995: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, The Rockefeller University
1996: HHMI Investigator, The Rockefeller University
1998: Marilyn M. Simpson Professor, The Rockefeller University

SELECTED HONORS, AWARDS, AND FELLOWSHIPS
Member, National Academy of Sciences, 2001
Member, American College of Physicians
Member, The Harvey Society
Member, Society for Neuroscience
The Banting Lecture Award, Diabetes UK, 2002
Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Metabolic Research, 2001
Time Magazine's Best of Science, 1994, 1995
Grand Prize, Best of What's New in Science and Technology, Popular Science, 1995

SELECTED PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Director, Starr Center for Human Genetics, The Rockefeller University
Founding editor, Cell Metabolism
Member, the National Academy's Board of Science Education

PUBLICATIONS
More than 125 original research articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Nature, Cell, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Neuron, and the American Journal of Human Genetics. Review articles in numerous publications. One essay, “A War on Obesity, Not the Obese,” originally published in Science, has been included in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004 anthology (Houghton Mifflin, 2004).

Journal genius: The first paper Friedman ever wrote received a succinct review: This paper should not be accepted at the Journal of Clinical Investigation—or anywhere else. “I really thought you had to be some kind of genius to get a paper published,” says Friedman. “And I feared that that level of achievement would elude me for most of my life.”

OUTSIDE THE LAB
Courting on the beach: Friedman met his wife, Lily Safani, at a shared summer house on Long Island. “A friend told me I was working way too hard and that I needed a life. So I went in on the deal and went out every other weekend. My wife was another person in the house.”

Rockefeller Raffi? Friedman enjoys music and used to play guitar—Brazilian and some classical—before his twin daughters Natalie and Alexandra were born. Now he mostly strums chords for silly songs he makes up for the kids. “This is a song about Snoopy the dog, Snoopy the dog, Snoopy the dog. This is a song about Snoopy the dog, Snoopy the big black dog,” Friedman sings. “It goes on like that for some time,” he adds. “Far longer than you want it to.”

Pass the popcorn: Once a year, the Friedman lab goes out to catch a flick. After the embarrassment of taking two new Israeli postdocs to see the movie South Park, Friedman says, “we try to stick to big-budget action pictures.”

10/04

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