Living legend in clinical biochemistry—Prof. Giuseppe Lippi: we should have strength to stick to things we do
Along the long scientific research road, one’s ability to publish his works in high-impact journals, especially in journals indexed in SCI, has been an important criterion to measure his academic attainments. Let’s assume those who stably publish 2 SCI papers per year as “Experts”, 5 as “Talents”, 10 as “Geniuses”, but what about 100? “Supermen”, the editorial office said jokingly. Well, they could not be seen many in modern days, but we do can see them exist and work actively among different research fields, achieving seemly impossible fruitful attainments…They are legends in different fields along the scientific research way.
Today, we would like to introduce a living legend around us in field of clinical biochemistry—Prof. Giuseppe Lippi (Figure 1), whom the editorial office have work with closely and witnessed his talent, high-efficiency, and great enthusiasm to research during the past one year. Prof. Lippi is a full professor of clinical biochemistry at the University of Verona, and the director of the clinical chemistry and hematology laboratory of the University Hospital of Verona. Besides being our Executive Editor-in-Chief, he also actively take on important roles among various prestigious journals and societies, including as Associate Editor of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) and Seminars in Thrombosis and Hemostasis (STH), Chair of the Scientific Division of Italian Society of Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SIBioC), etc.
In a young age less than 50, he has published more than 1,200 articles in peer-reviewed journals, with total Impact Factor over 4,400 and the Hirsch Index (H-index) as 66. He has been awarded with the 2014 Management Sciences and Patient Safety Division Award of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) for outstanding contributions in the field of patient safety in the clinical laboratory/healthcare industry and with the Outstanding Speaker Award from the AACC in 2016.
It is hard to imagine how one could be so enthusiastic and high productive. Bearing in heart with sincere respect and curiosity, my colleague Grace Li and I were happy to grasp the opportunity to visit Prof. Lippi in his University Hospital of Verona after a medical conference in June 2016. We are thankful for Prof. Lippi’s amiableness and sparing time to show us their labs and his vigorous and lovely team (Figure 2).
During the visit, we had a brief interview with Prof. Lippi (Figure 3, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH-qJCEEDFk&feature=youtu.be). Via our communication face to face, we were impressed by intense love and enthusiasm to scientific research. As he said, “I never imagine about that. I enjoy everything I am doing, all for pleasure. Research is what I expected to do when I was young, what I am doing, and what I will do for the rest of my life, hopefully. Retirement from work would be the last thing I want”. I was touched by this lovely answer, which actually blew away all the myths of his high-productiveness and explained his success, I think.
Speaking of the key to success, he thinks faith and persistence are important in road of scientific research. “We will face with many setbacks, doubt, and even scandals during career, but we must have the strength to keep on doing what we do, because if we really like it trust in what we do, we will succeed finally”.
As Prof. Lippi is taking editorial roles for several prestigious journals and reviews articles for them, we also ask about his opinions on judging good papers. From his perspective, firstly, make the paper really useful and comprehensive for readers. Second, make it high quality, via a good introduction, a good presentation on the data with solid theoretic analysis, and a good discussion to attract readers, etc. More details please refer to the video. Let’s enjoy the video.
Interview questions
- As we known you are one of the most productive researchers in clinical chemistry, what keeps you passionate? As you say you do research for pleasure, did you ever set up any standards for yourself?
- You are a full Professor in University of Verona, and devote much time to teaching. What would be your advices/suggestions for the young researchers?
- Have you ever encounter any upsets or setbacks?
- You are in a position of reviewing papers for some journals. From your perspective, what makes a good paper and what kind of papers could be accepted by good journals more easily?
- In your career in clinical chemistry, which part interests you most?
- What’s your next goal for your research career?
- Do you have any opinions or plans on future collaboration internationally?
- Have you ever thought about things you would like to do after retirement?
Prof. Giuseppe Lippi is, with not doubt, a living legend in clinical biochemistry in modern days, with numerous fine contributions to the field. We are honored to have him as the Executive Editor-in-Chief. With his vigorous support and leadership as guest editor, we recently have successfully organized a serial of focused articles as followed. We are thankful for his great support and expect more fruitful collaboration, to together push the development of scientific research in clinical biochemistry in near future.
- A recent focused issue on “State of the art in diagnostics of the Acute Coronary Syndrome” published in June (http://atm.amegroups.com/post/view/focus-on-ldquo-state-of-the-art-in-diagnostics-of-the-acute-coronary-syndrome-rdquo-guest-edited-by-prof-giuseppe-lippi-and-prof-gianfranco-cervellin)
- A focused column on “STARD Guideline” (http://atm.amegroups.com/issue/view/397)
The column invites world-renowned experts in clinical chemistry to comments on STARD Guideline.
Acknowledgements
None.
Footnote
Conflicts of Interest: The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.
References
- Zhong JS. Prof. Giuseppe Lippi: a good paper should be useful and comprehensive first to really benefit readers. Asvide 2016;3:351. Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/1120
(Managing Editor: Jessie S. Zhong, ATM, editor@atmjournal.org)
