E. Leon Barnes Jr.
April 28, 1941—Feb. 24, 2023

E. Leon Barnes Jr. (Res ’72) was a Pitt pathologist who demonstrated how biomarkers could be used to classify cancer.

After earning his MD at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 1966, Barnes came to Pitt Med for a residency in anatomic and clinical pathology. He became an assistant professor of pathology, and except for one year in private practice, remained at Pitt Med until his retirement in 2010 as a professor of pathology emeritus.

The University established an endowed chair in the Department of Pathology in his name.

Barnes wrote seven pathology textbooks and more than 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 1995 and was awarded the European Society of Pathology Honorary Diploma. In 2012, he received the Fred Waldorf Stewart Award from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Department of Pathology.

“Leon was one of only two or three in the world who helped define head and neck pathology,” says Jonas T. Johnson, an MD  and Distinguished Service Professor of Otolaryngology, and former chair of that department.

George K. Michalopoulos, an MD, PhD and Maud L. Menten Professor of Pathology and former chair of pathology, says Barnes’ classifications of head and neck tumors are standards in the field and can be directly linked to therapies for those cancers.
“The whole field of pathology, from here to Alaska to Australia, relating to what are the classifications of head and neck cancers and how the therapies work” stems from Barnes’ research, Michalopoulos says.

Robert Ferris, an MD, PhD, the Hillman Professor of Oncology and director of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, says of Barnes’ contributions: “Leon defined the concept of biomarkers before we really even knew what those were and how important they could be for patient selection to optimize outcomes and guide treatment intensity. Many of the pathologic features of risk that he identified in the 1980s have been validated and are now integrated into the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system across the world for head and neck cancer.”

Johnson talked to Barnes’ widow and their two daughters a few days after his death and learned that he was the consummate family man who doted on his wife, kids and grandchildren.
His daughter notes that his legacy lives on through his family and the graduates of his program who are distributed all over the world and are “the future of head and neck pathology.”

Martica “Tica” Hall
March 14, 1959—March 18, 2023

You know how people say, ‘Oh, they’d give you the shirt off their back’?” asked Samantha Moatz, founder and executive director of the breast cancer nonprofit 412Thrive. “Well, Tica once literally gave someone the pants off her [back-end]!”

Just weeks before her death, Martica “Tica” Hall (PhD ’96) acquired auction items, invited sponsors and participated in a photoshoot to promote a 412Thrive fundraiser. During that shoot, two fellow “thrivers” didn’t have jeans that fit them because of their treatment-related weight fluctuations. This presented an issue as jeans were the designated uniform for the shoot. Hall promptly removed her own so that the women could take turns wearing them for their photos.

Hall, a University of Pittsburgh professor of psychiatry, of psychology, and of clinical and translational science, was born in San Tomé, Venezuela. She traveled extensively, visiting every continent except Antarctica.

Hall was a world-renowned expert in sleep and circadian science but according to an interview she gave in 2021 for the American Psychosomatic Society, discovering her research focus was a “total accident.” While in graduate school, a classmate told her he was conducting an experiment on REM sleep deprivation and long-term strengthening of effective neuronal connections in the brain. This piqued her interest in slumber, and Hall searched for an article that proved sleep is a mediator of the relationship between stress and the immune system to present at her department’s next journal club meeting.

She found only five articles. Excited at the possibility of filling that research void, Hall declared, “I found my muse. You have to have your eyes open and an open heart to be able to see that this accident isn’t just something to forget about.”

It was with that open heart that Hall came to Pitt, notes David Lewis, an MD, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and chair of that department. “Tica was a superb scientist, dedicated mentor and excellent teacher. She was a consummate colleague to those who had the opportunity to work with her.”   

Hall is honored through the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research’s Tica Hall Mentorship Award and the American Psychosomatic Society’s Dr. Martica Hall Award in Sleep Medicine.

When asked in that 2021 interview what she considered her single greatest accomplishment, Hall said, “It’s not going to be any one thing I wrote. It’s going to be the people who, because of the things I wrote and said, developed and integrated sleep and rhythms into their research.”

Read more from the Summer 2023 issue.