In Memoriam: Dale Hereld, MD, PhD
NIAAA shares the sad news that Dale Hereld, M.D., Ph.D., passed away on Friday, April 26, 2024.
Dr. Hereld's areas of expertise included signal transduction and chemotaxis. He joined to NIAAA in 2008 to oversee the basic research portfolio on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) within the Division of Metabolism and Health Effects (DMHE).
Dr. Hereld contributed to FASD-related research in many ways, serving as NIAAA Project Scientist on three FASD-related cooperative agreements: the Prenatal Alcohol, SIDS, and Stillbirth Research (PASS) Network; the Collaborative Initiative on FASD (CIFASD) research consortium; and the Collaboration on FASD Prevalence (CoFASP) research consortium. In addition, Dr. Hereld represented the NIAAA on several NIH-wide committees and projects, including the NIH-wide Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program from 2015 until his retirement in 2019.
Prior to his career at NIAAA, Dr. Hereld conducted postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he obtained both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. He subsequently joined the faculty of the medical school of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He was the recipient of a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and the American Heart Association-Texas Affiliate's Lyndon Baines Johnson Research Award.
Dr. Bill Dunty with NIAAA DMHE said, “Dale was a beloved member of the NIAAA family. You counted yourself lucky to have known him, witnessed his charm and kindness, or experienced a touch of his quick-witted humor.”
Dr. Hereld will be deeply missed by his NIAAA colleagues, family, and friends.