Photo by Rocky Rothrock
 “Viewed from outside the United States, there are surprisingly few individuals in the U.S. who identify themselves readily in the field of experimental hematology because of their sustained and repeated significant contributions to the field. Dr. Broxmeyer is one such.” — Dr. Donald Metcalf, professor emeritus of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia |
In 1989, the first cord blood transplant was performed on a five-year-old with Fanconi anemia. Hal Broxmeyer was not only there, he helped make it—and more than 2,000 transplants since then—possible.
In a move that his colleagues repeatedly claim is both a distinctive contribution to his field and a distinguishing characteristic of his career, Broxmeyer applied his scientific method to clinical practice and offered his lab as the first cord blood bank in the world.
“His work on umbilical cord blood as a source of progenitor cells can be said to be classic and pioneering,” said Dr. Robert Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and co-discoverer of the AIDS virus. “Its importance is self-evident.”
Lauded for his leadership, scholarship, impact and example, Broxmeyer sets—and often raises—the bar. He holds 12 patents and has written more than 400 articles in peer-reviewed journals and more than 150 book chapters and reviews. His work has been recognized by his international colleagues and by a steady stream of prestigious honors, grants and awards. But, as Dr. Barry Coller, David Rockefeller Professor of medicine at Rockefeller University writes, it is Broxmeyer’s “true love of science, his absolute commitment to his students and trainees, and his friendliness and openness as a scientific colleague” that make him a role model for the medical profession.
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