Dr. Solomon A. Kaplan, 1924–2017

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Dr. Solomon KaplanRenowned UCLA pediatric endocrinologist Solomon Alexander Kaplan, MD, a former subboard member and subboard chair at the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP), died at home on Jan. 2, 2017.

A memorial service for Dr. Kaplan will be held at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (map and directions) on Friday, Feb. 10, at 9 a.m.. The service will follow the Kaplan Lectureship held at 8 am in the Tamkin Auditorium.

Dr. Kaplan served six years on ABP’s pediatric endocrinology subboard (beginning in 1985) and chaired the subboard for three years. He also served on the ABP Board of Directors for three years (1988-1990) as the subboard representative.

Dr. Kaplan’s long and distinguished career covered several decades. Most recently he was Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he had at various times served as the Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology, director of the UCLA General Clinical Research Center and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs. As a Professor, he trained many outstanding pediatric endocrinologists who went on to successful careers and leadership positions.

Before joining UCLA, Dr. Kaplan was an Associate Professor and Chief of Endocrinology at the University of Southern California and the Director of Laboratories at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. Dr. Kaplan started his career as an assistant and associate professor of the State University of New York in Brooklyn after completing a four-year Mead Johnson Fellowship under the auspices of the Society for Pediatric Research at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation. Dr. Kaplan interrupted his academic career in 1954 when he began two years of active duty in the U.S. Naval Reserve at the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda.

A pioneer in pediatric endocrinology, Dr. Kaplan contributed to the field by editing the first two editions of the standard pediatric endocrinology textbook, Clinical Pediatric Endocrinology. He also served on study sections and review committees for the National Academy of Sciences and National Institutes of Health (NIH) and on the editorial boards of many scientific journals. His research focused on the mechanisms of hormone action and on the insulin receptor.

Dr. Kaplan was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He graduated from the Witwatersrand University School of Medicine in 1945 and completed his training at the Johannesburg General Hospital and the Transvaal Memorial Children’s Hospital in 1948.

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