He spent the academic half of his career studying and teaching about the basic synthesis of cholesterol at Cornell University and at the University of Missouri. By the time his career took him to the research and development department of DuPont, a drug that lowered cholesterol in the body already had been identified. But the drug uses a substance that is foreign to the body - an isolated ingredient from fungi. Gaylor's goal was to design a compound that mimics the body's natural ability to regulate cholesterol. The drug he designed currently is undergoing clinical studies.
Numbers are the driving force behind policy decisions.
Sensitive to the conditions of society, Wilk created a system of health and social statistics that guided allocation of resources for Canada and served as a model for the rest of the world. Wilk, who received an M.S. in statistics from ISU in 1953, joined Statistics Canada, an agency akin to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau, as chief statistician at a time when the public and the media had lost confidence in the bureau. Over the next two years, Dr. Wilk's high intelligence, energy and clearly evident professionalism succeeded not only in reversing attitudes and procedures at Statistics Canada, but restored the bureau to its previous high standing in Canadian society. Wilk resides in Stittsville, Ontario, Canada. When Keith Yamamoto declared himself a biochemistry and biophysics major at ISU in 1964, he remembers that it was with some ambivalence.