Dr. Stephen Rothman

Dr. Stephen Rothman
Dr. Stephen S. Rothman passed away in late April at the age of 89. He was an Emeritus Professor of Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Born in 1935, Dr. Rothman grew up in the Bronx and worked in his father's neighborhood pharmacy until college. He received three degrees from the University of Pennsylvania: undergraduate, D.D.S and a Ph.D. in Physiology.
After completing his doctorate, Dr. Rothman joined the Physiology Department at Harvard University in 1964 as an Assistant Professor and was then promoted to Associate Professor and remained at Harvard until 1971 when he headed West to California to join the faculty at U.C.S.F.
Dr. Rothman published over 200 articles, including multiple publications in Science, Nature, and the American Journal of Physiology. He published more than five books, including Protein Secretion: A Critical Analysis of the Vesicle Model (1985); Lessons from the Living Cell: The Limits of Reductionism (2002); and The Paradox of Evolution (2015). He is best known for his groundbreaking discovery that proteins can cross cellular barriers in the body without needing vesicles to cross the cellular membrane.
Dr. Rothman was an avid pianist and painter. He met the great love of his life-Doreen Zinn-while attending Jewish summer camp when he was only 15. They were virtually inseparable from the time they met and remained together for nearly 70 years until her death in 2021.
Dr. Rothman will be remembered as a generous and loving partner, parent, grandparent, and friend. He is survived by his two children, Peter Rothman and Jennifer Rothman, two daughters-in-law, and seven grandchildren.