Dr. Thomas J. Gill III is a renowned pathologist and educator who has excelled in his professions for over 45 years. Early in his career, he was one of the first to show that non-biological substances – such as synthetic polypeptides – could elicit an immune response in an animal, going against previous notions that only biologically-produced products could elicit such a response. He showed that immunization of human mothers during pregnancy with tetanus toxoid could be transferred to a developing fetus, which has since been utilized in African and Caribbean countries. Likewise, he has focused his efforts in animal studies and clinical studies of humans, examining the causes of recurring, spontaneous abortions and showing that the genes involved in these cases may be linked to the same genes involved in transplantation. Over the course of his career, he played a major role in the development of the rat as an experimental animal in genetic studies as well, which has resulted in his organizing of a number of worldwide conferences.
Now retired, Dr. Gill most recently served as a Maud L. Menten Professor of Experimental Pathology and professor of human genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, attaining emeritus status in 1999. Serving the university as a past professor of pathology, chairman of the Department of Pathology and director of the Division of Experimental Pathology, he also served Harvard Medical School as an assistant and associate professor of pathology early on in his career. During his tenure with both prestigious institutions, he was also an active staff member of the Montefiore University Hospital, the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, the Eye and Ear Hospital of Pittsburgh, the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh VA Hospital. Likewise, he spent significant time at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston as a senior associate, associate and assistant in pathology. In current times, he is the director of research at the Boston Sports Medicine & Research Institute, co-organizer of the Musculoskeletal Research Consortium within the Department of Regenerative Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and an honorary president of the International Society for Immunology of Reproduction and the Alps Adria Society for Immunology of Reproduction.
At the inception of his career in 1953, Dr. Gill was a resident in the biophysical laboratory at Harvard Medical School for four years before serving Peter Bent Brigham Hospital as an assistant and the New York-Presbyterian Hospital as an intern in medicine. After finishing his basic medical training, he was selected to the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. He holds special qualifications in immunopathology and an anatomic certification from the American Board of Pathology, and he was licensed to practice medicine in both Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Impressively, he has contributed over 275 articles and over 195 reviews to esteemed medical journals, and he has sat on several editorial boards. Likewise, he is distinguished for his role in organizing conferences and symposiums.
Dr. Gill maintains affiliation with a number of organizations and societies to remain abreast of developments in his field and community. The vice chairman of the Conservation Commission of the Town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, since 2004, he has also been a lector of the Duxbury Holy Family Church since 1999 and chairman of the 65th reunion committee of the Harvard College Class of 1953. An emeritus member of the American Association of Immunologists, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Transplantation Society, the American Society for Investigative Pathology and the American Society of Human Genetics, among others, he currently maintains membership with the American Medical Association, the Massachusetts Medical Society, the American Society for Reproductive Immunology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Notably, he served several of these societies as president.
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