News November 2020
ISAP mourns the passing of Hartmut Derendorf
Dear colleagues and friends,
On November 23, 2020, our community lost a giant in our field and a remarkable human being: With heavy heart, we would like to share with you the devastating news that Hartmut Derendorf, Ph.D., our former President and longstanding ISAP member, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 67.
After studying Pharmacy and obtaining his Ph.D. in 1979 from the University of Münster, Germany, he joined the College of Pharmacy at the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA as a postdoctoral fellow in 1981, became a faculty member in 1983, and chaired the Department of Pharmaceutics for more than 25 years until his retirement in 2018. During that time, Hartmut become a leader in the field of modern pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, long before such “scientific questions became mainstream questions”, as noted by his colleague and friend Ursula Theuretzbacher. Indeed, Hartmut mentored over 70 graduate students and 40 postdoctoral fellows and published over 500 publications. He earned numerous national and international awards for his research, e.g. the Volwiler Research Achievement Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy as well as the American College of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP), Distinguished Investigator Award. Hartmut was also a former review panel member of the NASA Human Research Program, which investigated drug use during spaceflight, indicating the wide outreach of his research.
Our colleague Paul Tulkens remembered when Hartmut joined ISAP in 1995 at one of the founding meetings in Quebec City, Canada: “Hartmut presented a poster that we all very much appreciated because of its high scientific pharmacological content. We all saw him as one of the future leaders in the discipline of antimicrobial PK/PD”, Paul said. He was right. Since then Hartmut was a longstanding, extremely active and passionate ISAP member. He served as President of ISAP from 2004-2006 and was a Council member for countless years until only a few weeks ago. He shaped the society tremendously. Roger Nation noted that Hartmut “had a deep love for ISAP and was a passionate advocate for its role in fostering the development of emerging antimicrobial chemotherapy scientists.” As an exceptional educator and caring mentor, he touched numerous lives, and inspired many young fellows to pursue a career in PK/PD and antimicrobial pharmacology, including myself. Hartmut did not only inspire, but took his role as a mentor very seriously and was “supportive like a father” of so many of us, as noted by Markus Zeitlinger.
Our thoughts are with his wife Kerry, his family and friends during this time of grieving the loss of this remarkable human being, who was not only an extremely gifted scientist, but also a humble and kind person with a heart of gold, positive attitude and sense of humor. He will be deeply missed by all of us.
Respectfully,
Sebastian G. Wicha, President
on behalf of the International Society of Anti-Infective Pharmacology (ISAP)