Wed, 15 Oct 2014
Dr. Alexander Meisels has died peacefully in September 2014 at the age of 88 years. His service to the International Academy of Cytology is legendary having been a member of the Executive Council of the IAC for 39 years. He served as Secretary-Treasurer from 1971 to 1986 and continued subsequently as President, Treasurer and Member till 2010. He was responsible as Secretary or President for six International Congresses of Cytology organized by the IAC (Miami 1974, Tokyo 1977, Munich 1980, Montreal 1983, Brussels 1986, Buenos Aires 1989). His contributions to the field of cytopathology were decisive and manifold in all, research, teaching and administration. He himself considered his discovery of the relationship between the infection by human papillomavirus (HPV) and the development of cervical carcinoma his most significant contribution of which he was understandably proud of. In 1976 he postulated that the koilocytotic changes in cervical epithelial cells represent an expression of viral infection and the initial step of carcinogenesis (Acta Cytol 1976; 20: 505-509), a hypothesis which was then controversially debated and is now common knowledge. Born in Berlin, he had to flee Germany with his parents and received his early schooling in Paris, France. He later attended the National University of Mexico, where he obtained in 1951 his B.Sc. and M.D. In 1960 he moved to Quebec, Canada where he worked until retirement at St. Sacrement Hospital and Laval University as Director of the Department of Pathology and the School of Cytotechnology. He educated numerous Cytotechnologists, residents of Pathology and foreign guests, who subsequently spread around the world. He was fluent in four languages and was an eloquent and gifted speaker, he was polyglott and travelled widely. He was particularly dedicated to the Spanish speaking world spreading the cytologic gospel widely in Latin America. He received numerous awards, among them the Goldblatt Award of the IAC (1975), the Papanicolaou Award of the ASC (1982) and the membership in the Order of Canada (2000).