University of California Seal

Moshe Sternberg

IN MEMORIAM

Moshe M. Sternberg

Adjunct Professor of Chemical Engineering

UC Berkeley

1929 – 2008

 

Professor Moshe Sternberg was adjunct professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1997, teaching a popular graduate course on biotechnology in the Department of Chemical Engineering for 11 years. He died on January 25, 2008, after a two-year struggle with cancer.

 

Professor Sternberg was born on September 3, 1929, in Soroca, then a provincial center in northeastern Romania. His father was a commodities trader and manufacturer, while his mother came from a family of merchants. He received a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Bucharest, Romania in 1961. That year Professor Sternberg and his wife Ella left Romania, and his family moved to Israel. He subsequently moved to the United States and joined Miles Laboratories, holding various positions from 1962 to 1980. From 1980 to 1992, he was vice president for research and development for biological and clinical nutrition at Miles, Inc., and from 1992 to 1995, he served as senior vice president for research and development, biologicals and biotechnology, and Berkeley site manager for Bayer, Inc. (formerly Miles, Inc.). After his retirement in 1996, he served as senior advisor to Bayer, Inc, and also as chairman of the Bayer/Canadian Blood Services R&D Fund.

 

During his professional career at Miles and Bayer, Sternberg developed processes for the production of human plasma and biotechnology-derived pharmaceuticals, including recombinant factor VIII (Kogenate), alpha one antiprotease, antithrombin III, and antihemophilic factor. His research and development activities also included the characterization of protein structure.

 

At Berkeley, Professor Sternberg taught a graduate course on the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals. He encouraged and solicited many leading researchers of local companies to present their experiences in biotechnology startups to his students, including the scientific, legal and ethical issues involved. According to Professor Sternberg’s course description, The Development of Pharmaceuticals presented the process of taking a discovered biological activity through steps leading to a pharmaceutical product fit for marketing to the public. It focused on pharmaceuticals produced by biotechnology and from human blood plasma. In the course, students gained an understanding of product development in a biotechnology company. This highly popular course was expanded in later years to become part of the Management of Technology Program, sponsored by the College of Engineering and the Haas School of Business.

 

Professor Sternberg was always engaged with the students in his classes, continuing interactions with them long after their graduation.

 

He is survived by his wife Ella, son Theodore, daughter Talie Pierluissi, and four grandchildren.

 

 

              Harvey Blanch