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What he braved to learn leaves no one excuses

Walk miles to school? That was nothing for Dr. Edmond J. Yunis. He traveled days. MOSI will honor him as Hispanic Scientist of the Year.

By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published October 22, 2005

TAMPA - You know those stories your grandfather told about how far he had to walk to get to school as a boy? Dr. Edmond J. Yunis has him beat.

Growing up in Colombia, he had to leave his small village in Sincelejo and travel for three hours by chiva, a primitive Colombian bus, riding along with chickens and pigs. And that was only the first leg of his trip.

After the bus ride, Yunis would take a six-day boat trip along the river. Then a three-hour train ride. And then another three-hour ride by streetcar to attend classes in Bogota.

If he could endure all that alone as a child, Yunis told about 1,000 schoolchildren Friday, then students today have no excuse not to learn.

Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry will recognize Yunis, 76, at a gala tonight with its 2005 National Hispanic Scientist of the Year Award. Yunis is a professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Department of Cancer Immunology & AIDS at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Wit Ostrenko, president of MOSI, said Yunis' research with genetics and new technologies of transplants, particularly bone marrow transplants, made him stand out as the museum's fifth annual honoree.

"And it was because he was so humble" and has a great way of reaching people, young and old alike, Ostrenko said.

Past honorees include Antonia Coello Novello, former U.S. surgeon general and New York health commissioner; Mario Molina, Nobel laureate in chemistry; Fernando Caldeiro, a NASA astronaut; and Alejandro Acevedo-Guitierrez, a marine biologist.

Yunis spent Friday morning talking to Hillsborough County middle and elementary school students at MOSI about overcoming adversity, persevering and finding the key to success. Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio presented him a key to the city.

He shared stories from his childhood that told of his late development in some academic areas but how he never let it keep him from learning.

Yunis said he was 18 before he learned dinosaurs once existed, when Swedish biologist George Dahl came to Sincelejo. It was the following year when Yunis learned the air he breathed came from oxygen produced by trees.

"These are things that my 7-year-old grandson knows about," Yunis said.

His parents had no formal education, Yunis said, but they knew the value of learning. Yunis, a self-described "troubled child," was once expelled from the school he had to travel so far to attend. His father spoke with the principal and said a better punishment would be for his son to stay at school without permission to leave.

Yunis said he seized the opportunity as a chance to study.

"No matter how much you could be failing, there is always an opportunity to succeed as long as you are learning," Yunis told the students. "If you acquire knowledge, you will have more opportunities."

His studies paid off. Yunis later won a scholarship to attend Colegio Mayor de San Bartolome.

He told the students that while in one of his medical classes in the United States, the professor picked on him by making a joke about Yunis being from Colombia.

"Here, we have the great pathologist from the Andes," the professor said, calling on Yunis in class.

Students in the class were studying the pathology of the heart that day, and everyone had given the wrong diagnosis. Yunis stood to declare his findings, and he was the only one in the room with the correct answer.

"In one instance, in one day, because I had the right key and I knew what I had learned, I became the star resident," Yunis said.

Kevin Graham can be reached at 813 226-3433 or kgraham@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 22, 2005, 01:13:18]