Noted researcher
resigns from UH
for mainland post

The loss of epidemiologist
David Morens is said to show
the bad effects of bottom-
line economics

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

The recent departure of a noted scientist from the University of Hawaii is deplored by colleagues as a big loss to the state.

Dr. Lon White, with the Hawaii Center for Health Research, said the resignation of epidemiologist David Morens reflects the state government's failure to recognize the university's resources.

It also reflects government failure "to recognize that bottom-line economics is going to produce catastrophically bad long-term effects," White said.

"David's loss is precisely a harbinger of that."

Morens, researcher and epidemiology professor in the School of Public Health, has been appointed to a specially created position at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

He said in a telephone interview from Maryland that he has no title yet but will be doing research management in emerging infectious diseases.

He has done research for many years on Parkinson's disease and diseases of aging. He has been part of a team that has made significant discoveries in the Honolulu Heart Program and Honolulu-Asia Aging Study.

A UH Professional Assembly ad two years ago showed Morens counting quarters, waiting to use a pay phone for business related to his research. He had lost long-distance telephone access in university cutbacks.

"He was forced to leave basically because of an inhospitable environment," White said.

Morens said his National Institutes of Health salary will be almost double what he was earning at UH.

However, he said, "I have a loyalty to Hawaii and the university. I really want to see it do well."

Morens said he still has a home here and has some doctoral students at UH. He has volunteered to return and teach short courses for no pay, he said.

Dr. David Curb, chief of the Division of Clinical Epidemiology, John A. Burns School of Medicine, said, "We've been losing too many good people out here."

He said Morens' departure "is a big loss, and it's not clear who would be able to fill his shoes. It would be doubtful that the university would be able to recruit somebody for his position."

It's very difficult to attract people who are qualified and experienced in research, "the kinds of things he (Morens) was doing with us," because of the cost of living and economy, Curb said.

Morens said he will be working at the National Institutes of Health in a "spacesuit lab" that just opened a few weeks ago for work on microbial agents, viruses and bacteria.

There are only a few such labs in the world, with the highest level of security to contain organisms, he said.

White, formerly with the National Institute on Aging, said Morens "has a special opportunity to make a major impact on the world" in his new position.

He will be developing long-term strategies for various kinds of human, animal and plant epidemics "and how they impact on mankind and the whole world culture," White said.

He said Morens will try to conceptualize, to anticipate, recognize and be ready for emerging infections ranging from tuberculosis to viruses that cause abnormalities in rice.

"David is a rare bird anywhere, and here in Hawaii is a very rare bird," said White, senior neuro-epidemiologist on the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study and faculty member in the UH nursing and medical schools.

He said Morens is a "true scholar" and a creative thinker who looks at medicine in new and different ways and can see the whole picture. He has wide experience with a number of infectious agents and understands things from historic and multidisciplinary views, White said.

Morens is listed as a co-principal investigator for a recently funded Honolulu research program led by Dr. G. Webster Ross, staff physician at the Veterans Affairs outpatient neurology clinic. White, who has a VA appointment, and Curb also are investigators.

Morens said he hopes to remain involved in the research, but he can't take money from a grant as a government employee, so his role will change more to a consultant.

White said the Department of Defense grant is for basic research into processes involved in exposure to environmental chemicals in the military or other occupations.

The scientists have been studying aging and diseases in a group of Japanese-American men who volunteered for medical research in 1965. They were born from 1900 through 1919 and identified through the World War II Selective Service registration file.