William Simon Obituary, Death – Over the course of his 48 years working at the University of Rochester, he produced or co-authored over 60 articles that were submitted to and evaluated by his peers. These works covered a wide range of subjects, from the long-term behavioral toxicity of methylmercury to questions regarding stem cell transplantation for chronic myelogenous leukemia. He was particularly pleased with the publication of his book titled “Mathematical Techniques for Physiology and Medicine.
After a protracted battle with illness, Simon passed away on the evening of Monday, April 4, 2022. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 27, 1929 to parents Eva Grabowsky Simon and Ike Simon. He received his high school education at Taylor Allderdice in Pittsburgh.
He was able to pay for his education at Carnegie Institute of Technology by earning academic scholarships and working as a lab assistant. He graduated in 1950. After graduating from college, he took out student loans from his older sister and brother in order to fund his education at Harvard University, where he eventually earned a doctorate in applied physics in the year 1958.
After finishing his graduate studies, he worked for the Pentagon for a short time on sonar signals before moving on to the MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts. It was there that he met his future wife, Maxine. During his time at Lincoln, he was a contributor to the construction of the LINC, which was the first tiny lab computer.
After that, his interest in bringing computers to laboratory and problem work took off, and he was awarded a grant to work in the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School, where he applied the LINC to the study of biological organisms. In 1968, he was given a position as a professor at the University of Rochester Medical School, where he was responsible for advising researchers and instructing students in medically relevant math and physics.