Abstract
On April 5 of this year, only a few weeks after his 48th birthday, Dr. Mordecai Globus succumbed to an aggressive intestinal malignancy following an heroic struggle of 11 months. At the time of his death, Dr. Globus had attained the rank of full Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami School of Medicine and was a highly productive senior member of its Cerebral Vascular Disease Research Center and Neurotrauma Clinical Research Center, as well as an Assistant Editor of this Journal. His tragically premature death cut short a remarkably fertile and imaginative investigative career and has deprived his countless scientific colleagues and devoted friends throughout the world of a kindred spirit of enormous energy, immense intellect, and boundless human warmth and compassion.
Dr. Globus was born in Israel and received his scientific and medical education at the Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, where he completed a neurological residency under the mentorship of Shaul Feldman. He then served with distinction as a Medical Officer in the Israel Defense Forces, where, during the Yom Kippur War, he narrowly escaped death. In the early 1980s, Dr. Globus functioned as a neurointensivist in charge of the Neurological Service of Bikur Cholim Hospital—an affiliate of the Hebrew University. To our great good fortune, he then decided to join the University of Miami, initially as a postdoctoral fellow in 1985, to build upon a research interest which had originated in Israel with his experimental studies of the nigrostriatal dopamine system (with E. Melamed) and of regional cerebral blood flow in human aging and Parkinson's disease (with Melamed, Stern, Lavy, and others).
Mordecai Yom-Tov Globus, M.D.: 1948–1996
In Miami, Dr. Globus devoted himself solely to laboratory research. His initial studies focused on the nigrostriatal dopamine system and resulted in his demonstrating an association between striatal dopamine release and the vulnerability of that brain region to transient ischemia. He subsequently pioneered in characterizing the release of excitatory and other neurotransmitters and neuromodulators in ischemia and trauma; in exploring interactions among multiple neurotransmitters in vulnerable versus non vulnerable brain regions; in demonstrating that the protective effect of intraischemic hypothermia involves the inhibition of glutamate release; in establishing direct evidence of free radical production in global and focal ischemia and trauma, and its modulation by brain temperature; and in investigating the relationship of the nitric oxide system to excitotoxic injury. Dr. Globus authored over 70 published articles and over 120 scientific abstracts. The corpus of his research contributions has deepened and enriched our understanding of ischemic pathophysiology and stands as an enduring monument to his memory.
Dr. Globus was an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association; the recipient of numerous NIH and AHA research grants; and a member of the American Neurological Association, the Society for Neuroscierce, and the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. He served often and with distinction on NIH and AHA peer-review committees.
To those of us fortunate to have known and worked with Moty Globus personally, there is another, more profound, dimension to our loss, for here was a unique individual truly able to embrace life in all its aspects and endowed with the precious gift of living and enjoying each day to its very fullest. His laughter was infectious, and his irrepressibly animated style of scientific discussion was a source of joy to his colleagues. He delighted in his family, friends and colleagues, in his work, in travel, and in the convivial pleasures of food and lively conversation. Many jointly developed research ideas emerged spontaneously in the course of these delightful interactions.
Dr. Globus' middle name, “Yom-Tov,” is Hebrew for “holiday.” To have been privileged to be touched by the great human warmth and energy of this magnificent person was, indeed, a special holiday for all who knew him. He shall be deeply missed. Dr. Globus was interred in his beloved Jerusalem. He is survived by his devoted wife Hannah, a nurse and teacher; by his son Opher, 13; and his daughter Keren, 14.