‘Passionate’ biological sciences professor dies at 72-years-old

Spencer Thomas & Megan Trotter & Ember Duke | editor-in-chief & news editor & layout editor |

Philip Auron, a longtime professor in Duquesne’s Department of Biological Sciences died on Sunday, Oct. 13, at the age of 72, after a battle with cancer. Auron started at Duquesne in 2006, after spending four years across town at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to that, he had worked in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, where he was eventually promoted to associate professor. He also spent time with the Tufts University School of Medicine, and had a fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Wilkes College, before earning his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Penn State University in 1980.

During his career, Auron founded and worked on the board for two scientific analysis companies, earned several patents and helped submit the contract application for the GenBank database, an open bank of nucleotide sequences that is now administered by the National Institute of Health.

“He made some groundbreaking discoveries during the course of his career,” said Jana Patton-Vogt, a Duquesne professor and chair of the Biological Sciences Department. “He was very smart. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of a lot of different things.”

According to his biography on Duquesne’s website, Auron was involved in a landmark court case 28 years ago where he defended the right to confidentiality in the scientific review process.

One of his most notable accomplishments came during the 1980s, when his work on chemical messengers called Cytokines. This work led to the creation of the drug Ilaris, a prescription medicine that is used in the treatment of diseases like arthritis.

At Duquesne, he spent four years as the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences in the School of Science and Engineering. Much of his work came with graduate students in the school, where Patton-Vogt said he left the greatest mark.

“His most important contribution was his mentoring of graduate students in his own research lab,” she said. “They all came out with very strong dissertations and went on themselves to contribute scientifically … out in the world.”

One of those students was Tara Allison, who got her Ph.D. from Duquesne in biological science. She is now an adjunct professor at Mt. Aloysius College and the University of Pittsburgh Greensburg, and serves as the Ph.D. committee chair at Liberty University. She was shocked to learn of his death this week on Facebook.

“He was so brilliant and he was so influential that you just kind of assume he’ll just always be there,” she said. “He’ll definitely be missed by numerous people, even beyond Duquesne.”

She first met Auron when a professor told her to go to him with a question she had.

“But take a timer with you,” the professor told her.

She echoed how Auron was like a human search engine. She said that she used to go to him for input even if she wasn’t working with him directly.

“He always had beneficial questions about your research. He always pressed you to dig deeper into what you were doing, instead of just being superficial,” Allison said. “You could honestly get lost in conversation with him, because you would speak with him, and you just feel like there was always something you could learn.”

She remembers how he’d go through hundreds of slides in his classes, overwhelming students with information, talking fast, “like an auctioneer.”

Auron was teeming with curiosity and knowledge, both inside the classroom and out. He could think, talk and argue about science. Allison mentioned a 45-minute conversation she had with him about centrifuges.

“He was the kind of person that could talk to you for 45 minutes in the hall about the newest sequencing technology, but also about his favorite new movie or photography,” Patton-Vogt said.

“He could just connect so many different topics together and make it make sense,” Allison said.

Auron was also a member of the Duquesne Faculty Senate Assembly, where he was actively focused on free speech and academic freedom for professors, said physics professor Theodore Corcovilos.

“He was also an outspoken advocate for faculty rights and professional ethics in the sciences, and tenaciously defended his beliefs,” Corcovilos said in a letter to Duquesne faculty. “His voice will be missed.”

Auron leaves his wife, Deborah, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh with whom he frequently collaborated and published with, as well as children Zack, Alex and Rebecca. His funeral was held Tuesday, at Temple Ohav Shalom in McCandless, Pa.