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JÖRGEN FEX, M.D., PH.D. -
OBITUARY
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Jörgen Fex, M.D., Ph.D., former
Laboratory Chief and Acting Scientific
Director of the National Institute on
Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
(NIDCD) at the National Institutes of
Health (NIH), in Bethesda, Maryland, died
Tuesday, August 15, 2006. He was 82 and
had recently lived in Bethesda, Maryland
with Harriet, his wife of forty-nine
years.
Dr. Jörgen Fex was born in
Stockholm, Sweden, attended undergraduate
studies at the Universities of Uppsala and
Stockholm, and received his medical degree
at the University of Lund in 1952. For
the first four years of his professional
career, Jörgen practiced as a doctor
in the field of neurology and
electromyography in Lund. But frustrated
by the limitations of medical therapy of
those times and deeply saddened by the
plight of many patients who suffered from
incurable diseases, he chose to enter the
field of research in order to contribute
to the underpinnings of the medical field.
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His new passion took him first to the Nobel
Institute for Neurophysiology at the Karolinska
Institute in Stockholm where, from 1956 to 1962,
under the mentorship of Ragnar Granit, Nobel
Laureate, Jörgen obtained his Ph.D. in
neurophysiology. From 1962 to 1964 he researched
as a Docent Professor at the Karolinska Institute
and then, at the request of Sir John Eccles, Nobel
Prize Laureate, in 1964, he and his family moved
from Stockholm and traveled to Canberra, Australia,
to take up a Senior Research Fellow position at the
John Curtin School of Medical Research. In 1966,
he was pleased to receive an offer to join NIH as
Visiting Scientist under the stewardship of Dr.
Ichiji Tasaki, Chief of the Laboratory of
Neurobiology.
In 1969, Jörgen transitioned to Indiana
University where he was a Professor of Anatomy and
Physiology from 1969 to 1973. In 1973 he returned
to NIH where he formed and led a team of
international colleagues as Chief of the Laboratory
of Otolaryngology at the National Institute of
Neurological Disease and Stroke. Later, he served
as the acting Scientific Director of the NIDCD
during the Institute's formative years.
Jörgen played a pioneering role in the
studies of hearing and deafness. He was among the
leaders in the field in studying the underlying
biochemical processes in the neurotransmission
systems of the inner ear. He also foresaw the great
promise of molecular genetics in human deafness and
was instrumental in developing many of the NIDCD
program initiatives in that area. As a mentor he
fostered creativity and excellence among his junior
colleagues. Several of his former research fellows
continue studies of neurotransmission and the
biology of the inner ear and are leaders in the
hearing research community.
Jörgen will be remembered fondly for many
other reasons besides his scientific contributions.
He had a great understanding and knowledge of many
areas of science and medicine and was an avid
reader of history, philosophy, and literature in
several languages including Swedish, Italian,
French, and German. While pure research was his
passion, his focus was always on the state of the
human condition itself. One of his proudest and
strongest memories from his long career was when,
while still in the clinical field, he liberated
patients who had been incorrectly diagnosed and
long-institutionalized for mental illnesses which
they did not possess. Jörgen retired from NIH
at age seventy-six and for a few years thereafter
stayed busy by enjoying literature, music, tennis,
and assisting colleagues with editing scientific
papers. Later, he developed dementia which he
battled as best he could. While he lost much of
his memory, to the day he died, he retained his
wonderful humor and much of his marvelous, sharp
wit.
Dr. Jörgen Fex is survived by his wife,
Harriet Fex, by their three children, Anders Fex,
MD, Cecilia Fex, and Hans Fex, all living in the
United States, and by his younger brother,
Sören Fex, MD, who resides in Lerhamn,
Sweden.
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