For more than 30 years, Harvey Blank, MD, has had a salutary influence on dermatology, particularly with respect to the application of the scientific method. The critical and objective method of Stephen Rothman, MD, his early mentor, was adopted, shaped, and polished to new heights by Dr Blank. This approach has enabled Dr Blank to contribute significantly to laboratory-based and clinical dermatology, and to influence his own students in a scientific manner.
In the laboratory, his greatest creativeness could perhaps be found in the ability to separate the epiphenomena from the relevant, and the trivial from the substantive, and to go directly to the heart of the problem. Few are the students who have not felt the embarrassment of having had hazy and cluttered thinking uncovered. Yet the goal was always to clarify, correct, improve, and solve.
In the clinic and on the wards, associates and students of Dr Blank