Stephen Stanley Sternberg (July 30, 1920 – May 12, 2021) was an American surgical

pathologist Pathology is the study of the causal, causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when us ...

, who worked at the

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute– ...

for his entire career. He was well known because of his editorship of two widely used reference books in

anatomical pathology Anatomical pathology (''Commonwealth'') or Anatomic pathology (''U.S.'') is a medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the macroscopic, microscopic, biochemical, immunologic and molecular examination ...

(''Diagnostic Surgical Pathology'' ow ''Sternberg's Diagnostic Surgical Pathology''and ''Histology for Pathologists''). He was also the founding Editor-in-Chief of ''

The American Journal of Surgical Pathology ''The American Journal of Surgical Pathology'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering surgical pathology. It was established in 1977. Its first editor-in-chief was Stephen Sternberg ( Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center); the current edit ...

'', a position he held for 24 years, and an expert in colorectal neoplasia.

Biography

Sternberg was a native of

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long I ...

, and was educated at

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philanthr ...

Waterville, Maine Waterville is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, Kennebec County, Maine, United States, on the west bank of the Kennebec River. The city is home to Colby College and Thomas College. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census the populatio ...

(

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

, class of 1941) and

New York University School of Medicine NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of ...

(

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

, class of 1947). He subsequently completed postgraduate training in pathology at Charity Hospital,

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, LA and the

in New York City. Dr. Sternberg joined the attending staff of the latter institution in 1951, and rose through the ranks of the

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

faculty to become Professor of

Pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

& Experimental Therapeutics. He died in May 2021 at the age of 100.

Research

In addition to his work in hospital-based surgical pathology, Dr. Sternberg had a prolific career as an experimental pathologist. His research topics included the toxicity of antineoplastic agents in laboratory animals, and the

carcinogenic A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substan ...

potential of selected chemical compounds in

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

organisms.

Work as a Consultant

Dr. Sternberg has been an advisor or consultant to several national and international medical organizations. Those include the U.S.

Department of Health, Education, and Welfare The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...

; the U.S.

Food & Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food s ...

; the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

; the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

; the New York Science Policy Association; the American Council on Health & Science; the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

; the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation; and the Dutch Cancer Society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sternberg, Stephen 1920 births 2021 deaths American centenarians American male writers American pathologists Colby College alumni Men centenarians Physicians from Queens, New York Scientists from New York (state)