Nathan Edward Hellman, talented physician, and beloved father, husband, and son, died on February 13, 2010, from a stroke. Nathan was born in Houston, Texas, on December 8, 1973.
Nathan inaugurated the Renal Fellow Network blog and was the newest member of the ASN Kidney News editorial board. He was on staff as a scientist physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and authored numerous scientific publications.
Nathan grew up primarily in Duluth, Minn., where he was editor of the high school newspaper and member of the math, basketball, and track teams. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Yale University with a degree in molecular biology and biophysics. He received his MD, PhD, from Washington University in St. Louis and then did a residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. After his residency, Nathan received a Fullbright Scholarship to study the molecular biology of cystic kidney disease at the Hopitâl Necker in Paris, where he grew to love French culture.
He became a member of the division of nephrology at Harvard in 2007 as a clinical fellow in nephrology, and was completing his fellowship as a research fellow and member of Iain Drummond’s research group.
Nathan is survived by his wife, Claire; children, Sophie and Maxime; parents, Patricia (Gregorich) and Richard N. Hellman, MD; sisters, Susan Jean Hellman and Catherine O’Malley; brother-in-law, Timothy O’Malley; nephews, Henry and James O’Malley; and uncles, Joseph and Robert Gregorich.
Nathan loved ideas and the written word. In his own communication, he had a knack for matching his message with the medium, whether it be the popular Renal Fellow Network, or peer-reviewed journal articles. He was a kind and compassionate person and will be missed by all who knew him.
ASN Kidney News shares some thoughts from Nathan’s colleagues and postings from the Renal Fellow Network
Nathan’s passion for understanding kidney disease was infectious. He has inspired many people to continue this search.
—Matt Sparks, nephrology fellow, Duke University
Nate’s blog was inspiring to me personally and to others in the renal community. Even without meeting him, I felt that we all knew him from his blog. We have lost a great in nephrology who had made it big even at such an early phase in his career.
—Kenar Jhaveri,Great Neck, NY
Nate inspired many of us all around the country. He’ll never know how far his enthusiasm, intellect, and inspiration reached.
—resident, Indiana University, future renal fellow
I was so impressed by his website and the person he obviously was—bright, inquisitive, a lover of knowledge and teaching.
—anonymous
