2004 Lifetime Achievement Award In Medical Education

Benedict Lucchesi, M.D., Ph.D.

Historian Henry Brooks Adams said, "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."

It’s a safe bet that Dr. Benedict Lucchesi’s influence, the product of more than 40 years as an educator, researcher and mentor in the Department of Pharmacology, will never stop, but instead live on and evolve through the hundreds of students who became physicians and scientists under his tutelage.

“There is probably not a medical student who doesn’t remember the Lucchesi lectures on cardiovascular pharmacology.”

“Dr. Lucchesi’s lectures inspired me to learn and teach myself.”

He’s “energetic, enthusiastic, stimulating, challenging.”

The accolades and praise go on. On top of his achievements as a researcher, Dr. Lucchesi trained numerous postdoctoral students who went on to achieve impressive careers in academia and industry (in fact, by winter 2005, Dr. Lucchesi will have trained more Ph.D.s than any other faculty in the department’s 104-year history); he mentored scores of trainees from diverse Ph.D. and M.D. backgrounds (including some of his current U-M colleagues); and he championed the creation and implementation of the groundbreaking “Science in the Clinics” Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics curriculum (which, due to its success, will soon be taught not once, but three times a year); and whether in the lab, the classroom, his office or the hallway, Dr. Lucchesi is always teaching and challenging students to sharpen their minds.

After joining the Medical School in 1960 as a part-time instructor of pharmacology, Dr. Lucchesi rose to professor in 1973, getting his M.D. degree along the way.

He is known for his “devotion and loyalty,” his ability “to instill a sense of excitement about the research,” and his capacity to “challenge each individual in the lab to think deeply,” according to colleagues and former students.

Of his many teaching high points, two in particular stand out: his major contributions to undergraduate medical education and his ability to create a learning experience in his lab that is friendly to clinicians and medical scientists.

Dr. Lucchesi’s ability to recognize and respect the relationship between basic science and clinical medicine is unique. He knows that lab science has important implications in clinical practice. At the same time, he knows that the clinical field provides a wealth of opportunity for further investigation. By integrating this concept into his curricula and teaching style, he is just as successful and effective mentoring a future pediatrician as he is teaching a pharmacology graduate student.

Among his educational initiatives are the Charles Ross Summer Research Fellowship for Minority Undergraduate/Graduate Students which he founded in 1992, thus opening a door to the U-M for many talented students, and the ASPET (American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics) Summer Research Program he started in 1996, during which 5-10 students “join” the pharmacology department for a 10-week training experience. Dr. Lucchesi gets to know all participants personally, attends their final research presentations and coordinates an awards luncheon. At every turn, he is there to offer help and guidance.

Commitment to students, comprehensive mastery of the subject matter, passion for learning, self-reflection and willingness to try new approaches to learning are the key elements of Dr. Lucchesi’s brilliance as a teacher. Dr. Lucchesi continues to share this lifetime achievement with the U-M community. He has already made a significant mark in the field of pharmacology and his legacy continues to grow.

On the personal side, Dr. Lucchesi’s greatest accomplishment is having participated along with his wife, Diana, in raising five children - four of whom were born while he was a medical student and part-time instructor in the Medical School. All five of their children are now adults and have provided them with nine grandchildren. He cannot think of anything else that could surpass this achievement.

Dr. Lucchesi would like to acknowledge his wife and family whose patience and support have been of utmost importance to him. He also recognizes his mentors, especially the former Dr. Maurice Seevers and Dr. Harold Hardman who gave him the opportunity to be a part of a great faculty and who insisted that everyone engage in teaching in the classroom as well as in the laboratory.