In July 2023, we changed our name from AACC (short for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry) to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM). The following page was written prior to this rebranding and contains mentions of the association’s old name. It may contain other out-of-date information as well.
1990 Outstanding Contributions in Education
H. Peter Lehmann will receive the 20th the AACC Award for Outstanding Contributions in Education. The award is sponsored by SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories.
Dr. Lehmann was born in England; he received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, specializing in radiation and photochemistry, from the University of Durham, England, in 1964. He held postdoctoral appointments at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel (1965–66); the Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung, Abteilung Strahlenchemie, F.R.G. (1966–67); and the Radiation Laboratory, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN (1967–69). In 1969, Dr. Lehmann completed postdoctoral training in clinical chemistry at the University of Washington in Seattle, and in 1971 accepted a position in the Department of Pathology at the LSU Medical Center in New Orleans, where he has remained, becoming Professor of Pathology in 1982. Though appointed to an academic department, Dr. Lehmann also fulfills clinical responsibilities as Director of the Radionuclide Laboratory, Charity Hospital of Louisiana at New Orleans, and as clinical chemist to the LSU Clinics Laboratory.
Dr. Lehmann’s appointment at LSU Medical Center resulted from the award of a Division of Allied Health Manpower U.S. Public Health Service training grant to the Department of Pathology to establish and implement a graduate program in pathology, specializing in clinical chemistry. With the program director, Dr. Myrton Beeler, he developed the current program, which enrolled its first student in 1972 and has, to date, graduated 30 students in pathology (clinical chemistry), as well as trained 11 postdoctoral fellows in clinical chemistry. The program was approved by the American Board of Clinical Chemistry (ABCC) in 1975 and was accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Clinical Chemistry in 1981. Within five years of its inception, the program received a special commendation for excellence from the Board of Regents of the State of Louisiana, one of only five doctoral programs in the state to receive this recognition. Dr. Lehmann, coordinator of the Graduate Program in Pathology since 1977, was appointed Co-Director of the program in 1972 and Director in 1987. In addition to graduate students, Dr. Lehmann teaches medical students, medical technology students, and residents in pathology. Serving the University, Dr. Lehmann has been a member of the Graduate Faculty Council at the LSU Medical Center and of the Executive Graduate Council of Louisiana State University. Dr. Lehmann’s educational activities have also extended outside the University. Since 1984 he has served as a Director of the ABCC. For three years he chaired the Board’s Examination Committee and is currently President of the Board. He has given numerous workshops in clinical chemistry for the continuing education programs of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, and has been an invited speaker at national and international professional meetings. He has also served on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology and is currently an Associate Editor of that journal.
Dr. Lehmann has been active in AACC since 1977. He has served the Southeast Section as councilor and chairman. At the national level, Dr. Lehmann has chaired the International Relations and Book Committees and has served on the Commissions on Professional Affairs and Publications, and on the Planning Committees for two national meetings: New Orleans (1979) and Atlanta (1989). At present he is chairman of the Commission on Publications and a member of the Task Force on Ethics.
Dr. Lehmann’s research activities are related to analytical method development and standardization. He has been active in the international standardization of units used for reporting clinical laboratory test results, from 1980 to 1989 serving as chairman of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry Committee on Quantities and Units/International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Commission on Quantities and Units in Clinical Chemistry. Dr. Lehmann is optimistic about the role of clinical chemists in the evolving specialty of molecular pathology, which focuses on the basic etiology of disease and the subsequent application of those investigations to diagnostic medicine. Utilizing the facilities of the molecular pathology laboratory being developed at LSU Medical Center, he is currently involved in research on the hepatitis B virus.
Dr. Lehmann resides in uptown New Orleans with his wife Marielos, a native Costa Rican, and their two cats.