When Dr. Ron Strauss came to the University of Iowa in 1976, he didn't plan to stay long.

"I came here not with the idea of spending my entire career here. But here I am," said Strauss, 66.

He stayed, he said, because UI provided the right environment to succeed in academic medicine. Now a professor of pathology and pediatrics, Strauss was medical director of DeGowin Blood Center in University Hospitals from 1983 to January 2005.

Last year, he was named a distinguished alumnus by the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and this year he will be inducted into the Cincinnati Pediatric Historical Society Hall of Honor.

A pediatrician by training, Strauss obtained a research grant in the blood-banking field when he first got to UI, and eventually he made a career of blood banking.

He became a pathologist a few years later through on-the-job training and by passing a certification exam.

His research specialties include blood transfusions for all ages and pediatric hematology with an emphasis on newborns.

Strauss has spent his career trying to determine who needs a transfusion and how transfusions can be safely administered.

"The only way to really know that in a definitive way . is by performing well-designed clinical trials," he said.

Much has changed in Strauss' 30 years in the field, some of it because of his own work.

For example, it used to be thought that small babies needed fresh blood for transfusions. Consequently, they were exposed to a new donor each time, and the number of risks increased.

But studies done at UI and elsewhere showed that older blood can be given safely and now infants are exposed only to one donor.

That change was championed by UI and is now practiced around the world.

"The thing that I'm proudest of is that our group has been able to study infants in medically sound trials and provide information people can use, and that I've been able to secure funding for that work from the National Institutes of Health throughout my time at Iowa," Strauss said.

- Gregg Hennigan