For National Mentoring Month, the Hertz Foundation celebrates a tradition that runs deeper than awards or academic achievement—mentoring relationships that transform careers and lives. This year carries special significance: 2025 Nobel Prize winners Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell have both credited the late Hertz Fellow David Galas, former board chair, as a pivotal mentor who empowered them to pursue the “gene hunt” that eventually redefined our understanding of immune tolerance.
The partnership began at Darwin Molecular, a biotech firm led by Galas. Brunkow and Ramsdell were chasing the cause of “scurfy,” a mysterious autoimmune disorder observed in a mutant strain of mice. In an era before high-speed sequencing, it was a high-risk project that many would have abandoned.
Galas, a 1968 Hertz Fellow who also served as principal scientist at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute, was known for his collaborative spirit and willingness to guide scientists across disciplines. Both Brunkow and Ramsdell crossed paths with Galas during critical junctures in their research careers, finding in him not just scientific wisdom but the ability to unlock doors to pursue ambitious ideas.
“He always took the time to explore ideas and make connections with experts across disciplines,” said Brunkow, a distinguished investigator at the Institute for Systems Biology. “I feel his presence as a gentle guide who was always there to help with science and personal advice.” Brunkow will be a keynote speaker at the 2026 Hertz Summer Workshop to be held outside of Chicago in July 2026, attending alongside Galas’s wife, Diane Isonaka.
Galas’s influence exemplifies what makes the Hertz Fellowship extraordinary. For nearly 70 years, the fellowship has cultivated a multigenerational community where mentorship flourishes organically between fellows and extends beyond the fellowship itself.
Constantine Tzouanas, a 2021 Fellow who recently completed his doctorate at MIT, experienced this firsthand. “David Galas, Michael Loui, and Adam Marblestone provided guidance and support throughout my fellowship,” he reflects. “The Hertz Fellowship truly embodied its motto of ‘freedom to innovate.'”
David’s commitment to mentorship inspired Hertz Fellow Daniel Slichter to spearhead the David Galas Fund for Fellows, ensuring his legacy would continue supporting future scientists. The fund represents just one way Galas’s mentoring philosophy lives on. Slichter himself has been identified as a mentor by graduating Hertz Fellow Jo Scherrer, demonstrating how mentorship cascades through the Hertz network.
“He always took the time to explore ideas and make connections with experts across disciplines. I feel his presence as a gentle guide who was always there to help with science and personal advice.”
Mary Brunkow
The foundation has formalized mentorship through programs like the Newman-Galas Entrepreneurial Initiative, which provides up to $25,000 for entrepreneurial ventures while pairing fellows with experienced mentors. Named in honor of both Harold Newman and David Galas, the initiative reflects Galas’s belief that the next generation of innovators deserves both financial support and personal guidance.
But often, the most powerful connections happen informally. When 2019 Fellow Melissa Mai joined Harvard’s biophysics program, she discovered her principal investigator, Brian Camley, was a Hertz Fellow whose stories about the community immediately intrigued her.
“I definitely would not be in science if it weren’t for the mentors that I’ve had,” Mai says. “They really work to develop me as a whole person. They ask me about what I want to do with my life afterwards, and whether I’m enjoying life outside of academics because life is bigger than that.”
Tyler Robarge, a 2003 Fellow now teaching at the U.S. Air Force Academy, channels his own positive mentoring experience into the next generation. “I’ve always wanted the ability to come back and teach,” he explains. “As a commander, I enjoyed getting to be a mentor to my team, being a role model and helping people through difficult times.”
For 2019 Fellow Dolev Bluvstein, now conducting groundbreaking quantum computing research at Harvard, the community connection proved transformative: “The friends I met in Hertz empowered me to think big about the impacts of my work. It wouldn’t have been the same without them.”
As the foundation has spent the month of January exploring mentoring relationships among Hertz Fellows, past and present, David Galas’s legacy has stood out. During National Mentoring Month, and throughout the year, his influence continues rippling through the scientific community—from Nobel laureates to doctoral students just beginning their journeys. It’s a reminder that the most enduring innovations often happen not in laboratories, but in the relationships between those who guide and those who follow their lead forward.
