Professor Emeriti

Sam C. Brooks, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1957

Dr. Brooks retired from Wayne State University and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2005. Brooks is considered one of the founding fathers of the Wayne State University's Graduate Program in Cancer Biology. He was the Principal Investigator of the National Institute of Health's Training Program in the Biology of Cancer which initiated in 1985. This grant was the precursor of the graduate program which started in 1989. The training grant continues today as a legacy to his dedication to science and education. Brooks served as Director of the Graduate Program in Cancer Biology from 1994 through 2005. He was a member of the Senior Leadership of the Comprehensive Cancer Center (1988 to 2005) and served as Program Leader of the Breast Cancer Program at the Karmanos Cancer Institute from 2002 to 2005. He is a current member and past President of the WSU Academy of Scholars. He and his wife, Frieda, have two sons and one daughter; Samuel Carroll, III, James Winfried and Kathryn Robertson, and four grandchildren. Dr. Brooks is currently living in his newly constructed house on a moutainside near Steamboat Springs, Colorado which he and his son, James (Brooks Construction, Inc.), built in 2007.

Jerome P. Horwitz, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1950

Dr. Horwitz retired from the Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University in 2005. Horwitz is an American Scientist who dedicated his life to developing drugs to battle cancer. He first synthesized the compound that would later become know as zidovudine (AZT), an antiviral drug used to treat HIV in 1964. The compound was initially synthesized as a treatment for cancer. At that time, he was working for the Michigan Cancer Foundation with a federal grant from the National Institute of Health.  After synthesizing AZT, Horwitz went on to create two additional compounds (dideoxycytidine and d4T) which were successful in the treatment of AIDS, as well as agents for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Horwitz was named "Michiganian of the Year" in 2000 for his cancer research work.

His passion for research started at age 9 or 10, when he read Paul de Kruif's classic Microbe Hunters about famous scientists such as Louis Pasteur and Walter Reed. "A light bulb went on," Horwitz says. "I knew what I wanted to do." He is a current member of the WSU Academy of Scholars appointed in 1993.

He and his wife, Sharon, continue to live in Farmington Hills, and celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary in 2007. They have two daughters, Carol Kastan and Suzy Gross, and five grandchildren.