Tribute: Professor Dame Julia Polak

Emeritus Professor Julia Polak died on 10 August 2014, aged 75. Her friends and colleagues Professors Sara Rankin and Steve Bloom pay tribute.

Julia’s incredible life story is well known throughout the College and beyond – and has inspired many newspaper articles and even a book and play.

Whilst already established as a leader in the field of histochemistry, Julia contracted pulmonary hypertension – one of the illnesses she was studying – and subsequently underwent a heart and lung transplant aged 56.

For most people that might have been a sign to slow down, but not for Julia. She became resolved to help the many patients not as fortunate as she, who die whilst waiting for a suitable transplant. A chance encounter with Professor Larry Hench, then a material scientist at Imperial, introduced her to the field of tissue engineering, setting her on the ambitious quest to make artificial lungs.

Julia quickly recognised that this problem could not be solved by any one scientist working in a specific discipline and therefore in 1998, together with Larry, she set up the Centre for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at Imperial. The Centre propelled the field forward and led to the founding of the Tissue Engineering Society in the UK.

Julia was an amazing influence for good. She worked non-stop and all she did was a direct benefit to others. Her discoveries are leading to new treatments and new cures as we speak. She was as effective with people as she was with science and educated literally thousands of students, all of whom will no doubt remember her as a key influence in their lives.

She had the highest ethical standards and the greatest insight of anyone I know. Julia is survived by her husband Daniel and their sons, Sebastian and Michael.