The sound recording is a taped radio broadcast of Mark Nickerson's hearing before the HUAC, chaired by Kit Clardy, in Lansing, Michigan in May 10, 1954.
Mark Nickerson, one of the most eminent pharmacologist of the twentieth century, was born in October 22, 1916 in Montevideo, Minnesota. He earned his Sc.M from Brown University, his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, and his M.D. from the University of Utah. He joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1951. In May 10, 1954, he was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in Lansing, Michigan in regard to his political beliefs and actvities. He refused to answer their questions on fifth amendment grounds, and was subsequently fired by the President of the University at the time, Harlan Hatcher.
Having been blacklisted in the United States, Nickerson moved to Canada where he worked at the University of Manitoba and later at McGill University in 1967. Before retiring 1982, he served as chairman of McGill University's Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics and made several major contributions to his field of pharmacology. Among his many notable positions, he served as the president of the Pharmacological Society of Canada and the American Society for Pharmacology. He also chaired the Canadian Federation of Biological Sciences.
He died March 12, 1998 of natural causes in his home in Ottawa, Canada. The University of Michigan Seante sponsors an annual Academic Freedom Lecture to honor Nickerson and fellow professors H. Chandler Davis and Clement L. Markert.
