Charles S. Lieber 13th February 1931–1st March 2009
Authors: Manuela G. Neuman
Journal: Journal of Hepatology (2009)

Charles Saul Lieber was born in Antwerp, Belgium. During the Second World War, the German occupiers of Belgium demanded all Jewish individuals to present themselves to the authorities. Charles's father, fearing the worst, sent his wife and child to his brother-in-law in Lyon, France and went alone to report to the authorities. He was immediately transported to Auschwitz concentration camp. Since France was unsafe, Charles's uncle arranged money and legal papers for the two fugitives. They then, along with a group of 28 friends, travelled via the Alps to an unoccupied country. The group paid a gentile to take them to the Swiss border. This person took them directly to the Swiss authorities which, in turn, handed them over to the German authorities. All individuals from the group except Charles (who was a child) and his mother were sent to the camps, never to return. Charles was fortunate to be adopted by a Swiss family that took care of him and his education until the end of the war. He then was reunited with his mother upon their return to Belgium. Charles Lieber always gave tribute to his rescuers during the Holocaust. He mentioned that not only evil should be remembered of the war but also the goodness that some individuals showed at great personal danger to themselves and their families. It is perhaps these early experiences that shaped his values and gave him perspective throughout his life. His love of his fellow man, his family, students, fellows and colleagues was sincere and wholehearted. Charles Lieber respected everyone regardless of nationality, race or religion. He presented us all with endless opportunities to learn and progress in science, medicine, and in life. Charles Lieber was one of the fortunate people who was able to know what he wanted to do early in life which was medicine and especially liver disease. He obtained his MD degree in 1955 at the University of Brussels, Faculty of Medicine, followed by Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. He received a fellowship in Liver Disease and Nutrition that took him to Harvard. The gifted scholar earned positions of Instructor and Associate at Harvard University School and Boston City Hospital from 1958–1963. He joined Cornell University Medical College as an Associate Professor of Medicine, Director of the Liver Disease and Nutrition Unit at Bellevue Hospital, New York City. At the Mount Sinai School of Medicine he became Professor of Medicine and Pathology in 1968. Until January 2009, Dr. Lieber acted as Director of Liver Disease and Nutrition Section, at the Alcohol Research Center at the Bronx Veteran Affairs Medical Center, in New York, USA. To fully realize his dream as an educator he trained 200 postdoctoral fellows. Together with his wife and collaborator Maria Anna Leo-Lieber, they endeavored to foster strong ties between the fellows from America, Asia, Australia and Europe and generate a positive, almost inseparable relationship between him, his fellows, and his collaborators. The unique achievements were: the discovery of a new, alcohol-inducible, unique form of cytochrome P450 (2E1); uncovery of: metabolic effects of ethanol such as hyperuricemia, ketosis, increased high density lipoprotein; role of gender and alcohol dehydrogenase in ethanol oxidation and its inhibition by commonly used drugs; elucidation of stigma in ethnic differences in the vulnerability in ethanol and cloning its gene as well as and the role of gastric bacteria in gastrointestinal damage produced by alcohol. He established the baboon model of alcoholic hepatitis and introduced the isocaloric liquid diet Lieber-DeCarli used in experimental alcohol-induced liver damage in rodents and primates. Dr. Lieber was considered a skilful and respected scientist in alcoholic-induced liver and gastrointestinal damage, embracing all the aspects of biochemical, pathological and nutritional sciences. Dr. Lieber was the author and co-author of 1023 scientific publications and 12 books. The Institute for Scientific Information considered Dr. Lieber as the most-cited scientist in the field of pathology. He had 38 visiting Professorships and was an editor or member of the editorial board of 37 publications. Charles Lieber received the highest research and service awards from the American Medical Association, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the American Gastroenterology Association, the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, the Research Society on Alcoholism, and the American Society of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Lieber's legacy of passion for people and education will continue long after his passing. Dr. Lieber's daughters Collette, Leah and Sarah chose to go into medicine, while his sons Daniel and Samuel chose business and biomechanical engineering as careers in life. Let us remember Charles Lieber as a brilliant scientist, educator and most importantly as an example of human decency.