Roderic EckenhoffOriginally aspiring to be a marine biologist while at the University of Miami, Rod elected instead to join the ranks in hyperbaric medicine after graduating from Northwestern University Medical School. Since the only formal training program existed i the military, he became a US Naval officer, ultimately spending most of his time performing hyperbaric medicine research at the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory in Groton, CT. Aiming to continue in this area, but in a more academic setting, he returned to civilian life as an anesthesia resident at the University of Pennsylvania, in large part because of the renowned Institute for Environmental Medicine at Penn. But the ability to more definitively answer questions persuaded Dr. Eckenhoff to pursue basic science training in the Andrew Somlyo lab at Penn., where he accidently discovered an approach to measure subcellular concentrations of anesthetics. This launched him in an entirely new direction, ultimately discovering anesthetic photolabeling, and adapting a series of traditionally biophysical approaches to the study of anesthetic mechanisms. Receiving his first NIH grant in 1991, Dr. Eckenhoff assembled an interdisciplinary group to study anesthetic mechanisms, and just a few years later, led a program project grant to funding on the first attempt. This grant is now in its 18th year and has evolved to now include seven different institutions across the country. The study of anesthetic mechanisms opened new doors into adverse effects, such as possible interactions with Alzheimer neuropathology, an issue that has gained considerable traction over the past decade. Finally, Dr. Eckenhoff has had the privilege of mentoring dozens of outstanding physicians, physician/scientists and basic scientists over the last thirty years. Read More Read Less