Julian Frick

Julian Frick (born January 2, 1933 in Leogang ; † July 26, 2012 in Innsbruck ) was an Austrian urologist and long-time director of the urology department at the state hospitals in Salzburg .

life and career

Julian Frick was born on January 2nd, 1933 as the youngest of five children of butcher and innkeeper Thomas Frick and his wife Juliane, née Stöckl, in Leogang . The family ran the baker's landlord in their home community . After five years at the elementary school in Leogang, Julian Frick came to the Bundesgymnasium in Feldkirch in Vorarlberg . There he passed his matriculation examination in 1953 and then began studying medicine , which brought him to the University of Innsbruck and the University of Vienna . On May 23, 1959, he received his doctoral degree in Innsbruck and then began his actual training as a specialist . In May 1959, he was active at the children's clinic at the University of Innsbruck and switched to surgery in June . From June 1959 to September 1961 he was a member of the Surgical University Clinic in Innsbruck, before he switched to gynecology at the hospital of the Sisters of Mercy in Linz in October 1961 . He worked there at least until the following month; It is no longer known today whether he continued to work there for longer. He then worked at the Medical University Clinic Innsbruck from March to May 1963 and at the Medical Polyclinic of the University of Zurich from November to December of the same year. The rest of the time, between graduating in 1959 and the end of 1975, he devoted primarily to his urological training at the Urological University Clinic in Innsbruck.

During this time he also had several months of study abroad. He worked at the Urological Clinic of Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm , the Institute of Urology in London , the Urological Clinic in Newcastle , the Urological Clinic of the Medical Academy in Krakow and the Urological Clinic of the University of Lyon . Because a two-time Fellowships of Rockefeller University in New York City he came in 1967 for four and six months to the Endocrinology Branch of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda in the US state of Maryland and in 1968 for four or six months at the population Rockefeller University Council , where he worked on the testosterone metabolism problem . These months, which he spent in the United States, are considered to be the most formative for his research. Here he was convinced that urology was not a purely operative subject and that andrology in particular had a focus on reproductive biology and endocrinology. In 1969, Frick was one of the first scientists who established a method for determining testosterone based on competitive protein binding and was able to determine the testosterone in the blood in rather small sample amounts; Years later, this earned him the management of the steroid laboratory at the Urological University Clinic in Innsbruck. His studies were milestones on the way to hormonal male contraception . Among other things, he recognized that the spectrum of contraceptive methods for men lacked a reversible pharmacological procedure.

On June 20, 1969, Frick received the Venia Docendi for the subject of urology from the professorships of the Medical Faculty of the University of Innsbruck and was appointed associate professor on February 6, 1973 by the then Austrian Federal President Franz Jonas ; at the same time he was appointed head of the steroid laboratory at the Urological University Clinic Innsbruck. On January 1, 1976, he was finally appointed head of the urology department at the state hospitals in Salzburg ; a job that he held until his retirement on January 1st, 1999. He wrote countless publications throughout his life; his list of publications up to his habilitation in 1969 comprised 44 papers. 94 papers were submitted to apply for the primary course in urology at the Salzburg State Hospitals, with the list comprising more than 450 publications by the time he passed away. There were also various employees working on specialist books. In 1987, in collaboration with Gerd Ludwig and Erwin Rovan, he published the textbook Praxis der Spermatologie , which subsequently appeared in several editions and is now considered the standard work in this field. Because of his scientific achievements, Frick received the Hoechst Prize , which has been awarded since 1964 by the Hoechst Foundation for the Promotion of Medical Research in Austria , in 1968 ; In 1977 he was recognized by the Alken Foundation with the CE Alken Prize , which is awarded annually to people who have made a significant contribution to urology.

In the course of his life Julian Frick belonged to various societies; Among other things, he was a member of the Austrian Society for Urology , of which he was also chairman from 1984 to 1986. He was also a member of the Austrian Society for Surgery and the German Society for Endocrinology , of which he was an honorary member. He was also a member of the European Society for Urology , the Société Internationale d'Urologie , the German Society for Urology , the International Society for Andrology , the American Urological Association (as a corresponding member), the International Society of Cryosurgery , and the Royal Society of Medicine . In 1997 he received honorary membership from the Salzburg Medical Association. In 1992 he was one of the founding members of the European Academy of Andrology , or EAA for short , and for the first four years also acted as treasurer of this organization. On June 12, 1993, Julian Frick was given honorary citizenship by his home community in Leogang. On December 15, 1998, he was awarded the Silver Medal of Honor of the State of Salzburg by the then Governor of Salzburg, Franz Schausberger .

Frick was also co-founder and honorary rector of the Paracelsus Medical Private University (PMU) in Salzburg . Frick had a major impact on their medical degree; Among other things, with the division of the academic year into trimesters with fewer vacations than at traditional universities. Thus, students could graduate in just five years. On July 26, 2012, Frick died at the age of 79 after a long illness in Innsbruck , leaving behind his wife Helga and their two daughters Martina and Michaela. On August 4, 2012, he was buried at the Mühlauer Friedhof in the Mühlau district of Innsbruck .

Web links

• Obituary for Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Julian Frick in the Journal for Reproductive Medicine and Endocrinology , 2014/11 (2), p. 102
• Julian Frick

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Chronicle of the Comradeship Association Leogang , accessed on March 5, 2018
2. ↑ Silver Medal of Honor of the State for Dr. Julian Frick , accessed March 5, 2018
3. ↑ The Paracelsus Medical Private University mourns the loss of Univ.-Prof. Dr. Julian Frick , accessed March 5, 2018
4. ↑ Julian Frick's obituary in the Tiroler Tageszeitung , accessed on March 5, 2018