first met David S. Warner in 1983 or 1984 during a neuroanesthesia meeting in San Diego, or at least that is what David tells me. I actually do not remember that early encounter, but by the time I decided to move to Iowa a few years later, he was already beginning to be much more visible. In fact discovering that David and I would be colleagues played a large role in my decision to relocate. And so, between 1986 and 1994, David and I shared a laboratory, ideas and experiments (in the laboratory and in the operating room). And while I was (initially) the “senior partner,” it was obvious from the beginning that he was a very special individual. Our collaboration rapidly became one of two equals, and our seven years together were easily the most productive period in my career. We coauthored 54 papers together, and even though he left for Duke University to establish his own independent laboratory in 1994 (much to my disappointment), we still work together.

David S. Warner, M.D.

David was born in Evanston, Illinois, in July of 1953, the son of an Episcopal minister (who later became Bishop). He received both his B.A. and M.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He came to Iowa in 1980 as a neurosurgery resident! Fortunately for our specialty, he quickly realized that while his interest in the neurosciences was strong, his interest in being a surgeon was not. So, in 1982, he transferred to anesthesiology. Somehow he did this without hard feelings; his neurosurgery chair, John VanGilder, M.D., still speaks fondly of David and is as proud of his accomplishments as he is of his neurosurgical graduates.

David completed his residency in 1984 and joined the faculty at the University of Iowa. The new chair at Iowa, John Tinker, M.D., saw something unique in David and said, “I want you to get more training.” So, with the support of Dr. Tinker, David and his wife, Rose, relocated to Stockholm, Sweden, where for the next year, he worked with Bo Siesjo, M.D., one of the most innovative and productive neuroscientists of the day. Dr. Siesjo put David to work on the problem of cerebral ischemia, and he has been working on the subject ever since.

It is difficult to enumerate David’s accomplishments without sounding like I am exaggerating. He has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1988 (and is, I suspect, one of the top NIH grant recipients in our specialty). He has been personally responsible for writing and receiving two NIH training grants (one at Iowa, one at Duke). He has served as an editor for Anesthesia & Analgesia and the Journal of Neurosurgical Anesthesiology, associate editor for Anesthesiology and a reviewer for dozens of journals. He has published more than 170 peer-reviewed papers in 30 different journals and delivered almost as many invited lectures around the world. As one measure of his versatility, it is worth noting that his publications cover subjects as different as the cerebrovascular action of volatile and intravenous anesthetics, local anesthetic toxicity, obstetric anesthesia, regional anesthesia, clinical opioid pharmacology, hypothermic physiology, free-radical biology, spinal cord injury, cardiopulmonary bypass, nausea and vomiting and ambulatory care, not to mention his seminal work in the area of cerebral ischemia and protection. He has done everything from molecular biology and recombinant genetics to clinical trials. I lost count of the number of different people with whom he has collaborated, but he has trained more than 60 students and fellows (from specialties as different as anesthesiology, neurosurgery and neonatology!) — and he remains an active clinical neuroanesthesiologist!

I cannot imagine anyone in our specialty more deserving of the 2005 Award for Excellence in Research. He joins the most elite group of individuals in our profession, and every anesthesiologist in the world should be proud of having him represent us in the broader world of international neurosciences.

Michael M. Todd, M.D., is Editor-in-Chief of Anesthesiology and Professor and Interim Head, Department of Anesthesia, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.