Special Editorial: Thank you and Farewell to Dr. Gary C. Schoenwolf

Many people become very good scientists, and make major contributions to our understanding of biology, or are excellent teachers that have a profound influence on educating generations of scientists. But rare is the individual who excels in both research and education disciplines. Dr Gary Schoenwolf is that rare individual and this month we say farewell and thank you to Dr Schoenwolf after a distinguished career, and take this opportunity to reflect upon his career, and his contributions to Developmental Dynamics.

Dr Schoenwolf grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois and majored in Biology at the Elmhurst College. He did his PhD with Dr Ray Watterson at the University of Illinois, followed by post-doctoral training with Dr Robert Waterman University of New Mexico. With a primary interest in the intercellular and intracellular signaling and processes that generate pattern during vertebrate embryogenesis, Dr Schoenwolf's first publication, which was co-authored with Dr Ray Keller, explored the dynamics and importance of cell morphology, contact and rearrangement in Xenopus laying the foundations for our understanding of gastrulation and convergence extension.¹ Dr Schoenwolf then went on the study axial elongation, neurulation and spinal cord development in chick embryos, while also establishing standard procedures for using chick embryos in experimental embryology and teratology.²

Dr Schoenwolf started his independent career in the Department of Anatomy, at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah and he remained at the University of Utah until his retirement in 2023. During that time, he continued to study early chick embryo patterning and development, and through a Fogarty Award, from the NIH was an advocate for time-lapse imaging of morphogenesis. In addition to lineage tracing and fate mapping, and analyses of cell behaviors, forces and tissue bending, Dr Schoenwolf was also interested in the function of the Node in mammalian and avian embryogenesis and demonstrated through ablation studies in mice³ and reconstitution studies in avians,⁴ that the Node or Organizer was evolutionarily both sufficient and required to establish a fully patterned body plan. Dr Schoenwolf subsequently integrated these classical developmental biology approaches with molecular biology techniques and discovered that cranial mesoderm initiated otic development⁵ and furthermore that FGF signaling in the mesoderm played an evolutionarily conserved role in initiating inner ear induction in chick and mouse embryos.⁶ Dr Schoenwolf continued to study ear patterning and development and the roles of FGF and other signaling pathways throughout the remainder of his career.

In recognition of his scientific accomplishments, Dr Schoenwolf was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1992, and a Fellow of the American Association for Anatomy in 2009. That same year he also received the Henry Gray Scientific Achievement Award from the American Association for Anatomy. Dr Schoenwolf was also renowned for mentoring and training students, post-doctoral scientists and clinical fellows, and in 2009 he deservedly received the inaugural Annual Pediatrics Mentoring Award, subsequently named the Gary C. Schoenwolf Mentorship Award, from the University of Utah.

In addition to his scientific accomplishments, Dr Schoenwolf also had a distinguished record for education and service to the community. He contributed to numerous books on vertebrate embryology and was the editor of multiple issues of the Atlas of Descriptive Embryology, and Larsen's Human Embryology. Dr Schoenwolf was President of the American Association for Anatomy in 1996–1997 and served as the Editor-in-Chief of Developmental Dynamics from 2003 to 2012. However, even after completing his term, Dr Schoenwolf remained on the editorial board as Special Projects Editor until 2023 and was instrumental in the conception, recruitment, and production of innumerable special issues. For his commitment to service and education, Dr Schoenwolf received the 2011 Aaron J. Ladman Exemplary Service Award from the American Association for Anatomy, and the 2019 Viktor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize from the Society for Developmental Biology.

At Developmental Dynamics we are immensely grateful for Dr Schoenwolf's contributions which spanned over two decades. Dr Schoenwolf championed the “fast, fair, and friendly” motto that reflects the rigorous and positive commitment of Developmental Dynamics to our authors, reviewers, readers and the scientific community. As a society (American Association for Anatomy) owned journal, that actively supports the developmental biology research community, this is a tradition we remain fully committed to.