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Talk of the bay
Scripps boss pokes fun at esteemed colleagues
By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published January 31, 2005
Dr. Richard Lerner, president of Scripps Research Institute, might have encountered some obstacles in his group's expansion into Palm Beach County. But he hasn't lost his sense of humor.
Speaking to a group of venture investors and entrepreneurs in Orlando, he tossed out one-liners with the ease of a Catskills' veteran.
Introducing members of the Scripps Florida staff, he said Harry Orf, the vice president of scientific operations previously with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, had been recruited while spending a year in Iraq with the U.S. Army Reserves.
"We took advantage of his vulnerability and captured him before he could get back to Boston," Lerner said.
Orf will be particularly involved in community outreach, Lerner said, adding, "That explains all the barbed wire around our facility. It's Harry's idea."
Lerner also praised Charles Weissmann, a famed researcher who heads the Florida campus' department of infectology. But he suggested Weissmann, however brilliant as a scientist, might be clueless when it comes to the complexities of site selection.
On the trip to Orlando from Palm Beach, Weissmann apparently pointed at undeveloped acreage and suggested that Scripps, which is having trouble securing a permanent home in Palm Beach County, could just plop down anywhere.
"Charles said, "This is a big place, why not put Scripps here?' " Lerner said. "I told him, "These are state-owned wetlands. You don't want to go there.' "
[Last modified January 29, 2005, 16:41:02]
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