Isidore Edelman

Isidore Samuel Edelman (July 24, 1920 – November 21, 2004) was an American physician and researcher. Much of his research was devoted to the study of the distribution of water and electrolytes in the body in healthy and diseased persons. In recognition of his research, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1973.

Early life and education Isidore Samuel Edelman was born on July 24, 1920, in Brooklyn, New York City. were both Jewish immigrants; his mother arrived from Poland at about fifteen years old, and his father had immigrated from Lithuania at age fifteen or sixteen. He had a brother, Jerome Edelman, and sister, Esther Edelman Levine. Edelman first attended Brooklyn College before transferring to Indiana University Bloomington, where he received a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He was rejected from seventeen medical schools before ultimately returning to Indiana University for medical school, graduating in 1944 with his Doctor of Medicine.

Career After graduating with his MD, he returned to Brooklyn to intern at Greenpoint Hospital. He became the co-director of Columbia's Human Genome Program in 1991, and in 1995 became director of the genome center. He retained his leadership at the genome center until 2000. He was awarded the A.N. Richards Award in 1999 from the International Society of Nephrology.

Personal life and death Edelman was friends with several members of the Communist Party USA, with whom he would attend social gatherings. He was eventually brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee and asked to name names. Likely as a result of this, the Atomic Energy Commission withdrew his research fellowship and funding. Harvard did not offer a defense of Edelman nor of other faculty accused of anti-American activities. Edelman remained grateful to the American Heart Association for making the politically risky move of offering him funding after he was accused of un-American activities; he requested that charitable donations after his death be made to the AHA. married in 1942 and had four children together, two sons (including Joseph Edelman) and two daughters.