OT: Long overdue, Salk exhibit established at Pitt

[CrazyPaco]

The creation of the Polio vaccine at Pitt has been fairly universally recognized as one of the greatest medical science achievements in the history of the world and I've always said it should get some sort of notoriety on campus. Quite frankly, it is amazing that it hasn't. Whole museums have been devoted to much less, but in general, Pitt has always done a piss poor job promoting its unbelievable history of accomplishments so not surprising.

I've always suggested Pitt should create some sort of museum display...in Salk Hall refurbish his old lab space with era specific equipment, perhaps. Well, that hasn't happened exactly, but I now know partially why that wasn't happening. Salk took all his equipment with him when he left and had been left in storage out in San Diego where he had founded the Salk Institute after leaving Pitt. That equipment and his papers have now been donated to Pitt by the Salk family.

So these items are now back home and on display at Pitt's School of Public Health in its new Salk Legacy Exhibit. Long overdue but kudos are in order for finally doing what should have been done decades ago.

Dr. Salk Legacy Exhibit opens at Pitt

Pitt has opened a display with some of the things Jonas Salk used to pull off one of the greatest accomplishments.

www.cbsnews.com

Salk Legacy Returning to Pittsburgh 70 Years After Polio Vaccine Creation

Pitt Public Health unveils a free, public exhibit of historical lab equipment, documents and photographs from when Jonas Salk and his team developed and tested the world's first polio vaccine.

www.upmc.com

Salk Legacy Exhibit at Pitt displays items related to the development of the polio vaccine

A consent form signed by children who received an early version of the vaccine, animal cell cultures and Dr. Jonas Salk’s desk are all part of the exhibit.

www.post-gazette.com

Dr. Jonas Salk polio vaccine exhibit opens at University of Pittsburgh

The polio vaccine was created by Dr. Jonas Salk at a University of Pittsburgh laboratory about 70 years ago, and Pitt is honoring that legacy by opening a public exhibit of Salk’s personal equipment to remind visitors and students of the importance of vaccines to public health. The exhibit spans

triblive.com

 

[The Ole Six-Fiver]

Wow, thanks for that update, CP. Agree that this is one of Pitt’s greatest legacies, if not the greatest given the context of polio’s awful impact on public health at the time. I even looked for some tribute to it long ago when I was an undergrad and was disappointed that it didn’t exist…and this was the 1980s. Long over due

 

[CrazyPaco]

Pitt has so many people that it could recognize. There could be a whole museum just devoted to Pitt faculty and students.

Reginald Fessenden: Father of radio broadcasting
Vladimir Zworykin: Father of TV
Peter Safar: Father of CPR
Thomas Starzl: Father of organ transplantation
Paul Lauterbur: inventor of the MRI
David Cleland: father of project management
John Brashear: astronomer
Samuel Langley: aviation and astrophysics pioneer
Benjamin Spock: psychology
Wilfrid Sellars: analytic philosophy
Philip Hench: cortisone

 

[HailToPitt1985]

Thanks for this tribute to Dr. Salk, Paco. My wife and I are planning on visiting this exhibit this coming week. The draft is so insignificant when compared to the great men and women who are from Pitt and who made life so much better for all of us. Hail to Pitt!!!

 

[The Ole Six-Fiver]

Meanwhile this is what everyone sees upon arrival in Pgh…

 

[HailToPitt1985]

Meanwhile this is what everyone sees upon arrival in Pgh…

May he rest in peace, but that is obscene in comparison to what Dr. Salk did. Unless he has a Pitt helmet on.

 

[The Ole Six-Fiver]

May he rest in peace, but that is obscene in comparison to what Dr. Salk did. Unless he has a Pitt helmet on.

We graciously have George Washington too. For now at least. Eventually he may get the Columbus tarp treatment 😂🙄

Franco is actually fine as well, in an appropriate context/less priority location. Entertainment has its place, but this thread reminds and underscores that someone like Dr. Salk deserves to receive far more notoriety than any entertainer or politician. Put up a statue of Salk front and center, move Franco over by the Cinnabon.

I’d hope in whatever place that a prominent individual (or team of such, as it often happens now) was instrumental producing a similar groundbreaking medicine or vaccine, whether penicillin, HIV, Covid et al, they should get proper notoriety that has largely evaded Dr. Salk here.

 

[ERICCARTMAN]

An important point has apparently been lost regarding Dr. Salk. He elected not to patent his vaccine. He could have made millions back then.
I guess he was more interested in saving lives.

 

[CrazyPaco]

An important point has apparently been lost regarding Dr. Salk. He elected not to patent his vaccine. He could have made millions back then.
I guess he was more interested in saving lives.

I don't know what it was like back then, but these days Pitt would receive 55% of commercialization proceeds from such patents. Could have made Pitt millions as well, when millions were more like today's billions.

 

[PITTfanSD]

I work about 10min from the Salk Institute in La Jolla.

I really should brag about Dr Salk and the Pitt connection more to the younger associates at work. Of course me being a pure chemist in the Biotech industry those young associates probably already know more about Dr Salk than me anyways.

 

[hoclaw]

Long overdue. Just a great tribute;I know one of the first groups of children to be vaccinated, were
students @ St. Philomena School in Squirrel Hill.

 

[YourPittDanceTeam]

Dr. Jonas Salk...Thank You.

 

[vantheman1976]

Pitt has so many people that it could recognize. There could be a whole museum just devoted to Pitt faculty and students.

Reginald Fessenden: Father of radio broadcasting
Vladimir Zworykin: Father of TV
Peter Safar: Father of CPR
Thomas Starzl: Father of organ transplantation
Paul Lauterbur: inventor of the MRI
David Cleland: father of project management
John Brashear: astronomer
Samuel Langley: aviation and astrophysics pioneer
Benjamin Spock: psychology
Wilfrid Sellars: analytic philosophy
Philip Hench: cortisone

Superb!!!

 

[CrazyPaco]

I work about 10min from the Salk Institute in La Jolla.

I really should brag about Dr Salk and the Pitt connection more to the younger associates at work. Of course me being a pure chemist in the Biotech industry those young associates probably already know more about Dr Salk than me anyways.

FYI Salk wanted 1) to call it the "Pitt vaccine" 2) build his institute at Pitt with the $10 million ($100m in today's money) that he had received from what is today the March of Dimes.

However, Salk wanted his institute to have virtual indpendence from the management and administration of the University. Litchfield wouldn't have that. The rest is history.

Pitt is so dumb sometimes.. I mean there have been just some mindbogglingly, rockbottom, super dumb stuff throughout its history. Congrats San Diego, Pitt's idiocy has been your gain.