Tribute: The American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO), 2011 Distinguished Career Award goes to Dr. William G. Woods

Woods, this year's recipient of the Distinguished Career Award from the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, is internationally known as a scientist, a clinician, and a leader.These achievements notwithstanding, when you ask people about Bill, the word you hear the most is ''friend.''Bill knows a lot of people, and like Will Rogers, he never met a man (or woman) he did not like.Bill loves to meet new people, to know more about them and to explore their thoughts and knowledge.Bill appreciates, indeed relishes, diversity, and the thought that comes from left field.He finds things to value and admire in some people when others see very little.Once Bill is your friend, Bill is your friend for life.I (SMD) first met Bill in a molecular biology laboratory in the cancer center at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England, almost 25 years ago.I was a graduate student, just starting out in the laboratory, and just starting out in pediatric oncology.Bill was in England on sabbatical for 3 months.Bill was a glamorous figure, a real live American, with a deep store of knowledge, and he was ready and able to share it.Bill had an American ability to comment and contribute to clinical meetings and presentations that was unknown in England at that time.English opinions were shared in rank order at that time; the professor went first, then others, in decreasing rank order and the later opinions rarely differed from the first view expressed!Bill spent many hours with us in the laboratory, during which time he would work in the flow hood, performing tissue culture experiments and happily blowing bubbles through the tissue culture medium.The blowing of bubbles shocked us!We were transfixed by his knowledge, his openness and his intellectual curiosity.Twenty-five years later we still feel the same way.Bill was born and grew up in Baltimore, MD. Bill had an early affinity for snow, receiving his undergraduate degree in biology from Bucknell University, Pennsylvania, followed by his MD from the University of Pennsylvania.Seeking still larger piles of snow, Bill completed his residency in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, followed by a fellowship in pediatric hematology and oncology completed in 1977.Bill joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota as an instructor in 1977, briefly tired of snow, and spent a year in Oakland California in 1978, then returned to Minnesota as an assistant professor in 1979.This was an exciting time for the department of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota; Bill Krivit had just become chair of the department, bone marrow transplant was expanding, and clinical trials in oncology were making important in-roads into mortality from pediatric cancer.In a nice synergy, Bill Krivit was the recipient of the ASPHO distinguished career award in 2003, and Bill Woods co-authored the tribute written for him at that time.Bill remained on the faculty at the University of Minnesota for 17 years, succeeding Mark Nesbit (who received the ASPHO distinguished career award in 1997), as director of pediatric hematology in 1993.Bill received his first R01 grant on the cellular biology of hereditary retinoblastoma in 1982.Over time, Bill's interest drifted to the area of neuroblastoma screening.In a triumph of diplomacy and organization, Bill, Mendel Tuchman, Bernard Lemieux and investigators in Quebec performed a careful and important population based study of neonatal screening for neuroblastoma.This study can be considered a ''demonstration project'' for large-scale collaborative international studies that can answer important questions in pediatric oncology.''Big science'' collaborative efforts of this kind that can cross national borders, are becoming more frequent, as it becomes evident that this is the model needed to address key questions in rare diseases.

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