The Fialkow award is given every year - at approximately the time of Philip and Helen Fialkow’s death - to an outstanding assistant professor.
Philip Fialkow served this department as a resident, fellow, faculty member, creative investigator, medicine service chief at the VA and vice-chair of medicine. He was department chair from 1980-90 and then became dean of the School of Medicine.
Born and raised in New York City, Fialkow studied philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and attended medical school at Tufts. While a medical student, he met his future wife, Helen Dimitrakis, a student at Boston University and coworker in a cancer research laboratory.
As a resident, he developed an interest in genetics and undertook a two-year fellowship in medical genetics with Arno Motulsky. He was described at the time as remarkably bright; he chose research problems that were intellectually challenging and pursued them with bulldog-like tenacity.
As a medical researcher, Fialkow studied the genetic basis for leukemia and received a merit award from the National Institutes of Health in 1988 for his research.
In addition to his very strong commitment to investigation, he was deeply concerned with the development of our faculty. Specifically, he wished that there were good opportunities for new members of the faculty to develop to their full potential. Similarly, as dean of the School of Medicine, he placed special value on the education and development of medical students.
It was in this spirit that the department of medicine created the Fialkow Scholar Award to recognize the achievements and fostering both the research and teaching missions of faculty in the Department of Medicine.
Philip Fialkow and his wife Helen tragically passed away in Nepal on Nov. 3, 1996, when their hiking camp was buried by a sudden snowstorm. They were both 62.