(Vienna, 19-10-2015) Theodore Friedmann has made a donation to sponsor an anatomical wax model belonging to the medical history collections of MedUni Vienna in the Josephinum Museum. The Austrian-born US doctor is sponsoring the conservation and restoration of the wax model entitled “The cutaneous nerves and deep nerves in the sole of the foot".
Theodore Friedmann was born in Vienna in 1935. In October 1938 he emigrated to the USA with his parents and siblings and there he studied medicine and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. He did his training to become a paediatric specialist at Harvard Medical School in the Boston Children‘s Hospital. He pursued a glittering career as a doctor and scientist at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), where he held the chair for paediatrics and served as director of the gene therapy programme and Whitehill professor of medical ethics. He has won numerous awards including the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art and in 2015 he received the prestigious Japan prize for his pioneering work in the field of gene therapy. His fascinating professional experience includes working with the double Nobel prize winner Frederick Sanger.
The Josephinum houses the world-famous wax model collection which Joseph II commissioned in Florence for the newly founded academy, the Josephinian Library, as well as numerous other collections of the Medical University of Vienna, which document the history of medicine and the major contribution made by the Viennese School of Medicine.
The Association of Sponsors of the Josephinum
The Association of Sponsors of the Josephinum was set up in 2013 to support the activities of the Josephinum Museum. Its remit includes maintaining and restoring existing collections and improving the premises as well as the institution's scientific and artistic programme and the acquisition of new pieces.
With its announcement of a promotion prize for the sponsorship of a scientific work by Austrian doctors and scientists who had to flee Austria to escape the Nazi regime and subsequently found success in the USA, the association wishes to help to find out about and acknowledge the fate of numerous Austrian scientists who were trained at an Austrian university and had to flee Austria because of the Nazi regime.