Will always remember my first meeting with Davo. This was at a Keystone, circa 2005, I was a student, star-struck at the possibility of seeing in person the giant whose work enabled to me to work on a thesis. I summoned the courage, mumbled something to introduce myself and with a pompous sense of immaturity and misplaced knowledge said “I work on LXR”. Davo shook my hand, deadpanned and said “what is LXR” – now, one can imagine how scared I got as he kept his deadpan, but then I noticed the twinkle in the corner of his eye, and was introduced to his terrific humor!
We had kept in touch and would mostly run into each other at conferences, and years later, when I was at PFE, the PFE team had chanced on a finding and when we reached out to Davo and Steve, since among many, many, many discoveries, they were pioneers in FGF21 biology, they showed us the observations they had made independently, and were keen on working on the story together. In what I can simply attribute to the enormity of their generosity, they put my name as co-first author on the manuscript!
When I joined Merck, we invited Davo as a Speaker at the Merck SSF Site. This is when I learned he loved cars, he could not stop talking about his wife gifting him a BMW-M. Turns out I had bought an M as well, and I am proud to say he drove my car, that I have to this day. He went on to explain the nuances of aerodynamics and how the rear spoiler was just that perfect size to reduce drag. As part of his visit to Merck SSF, after Seminar and meeting with colleagues, we took him on a half-day hike to Muir Woods and for what is worth, he said this was one of the best Speaker invitations he had had.
His work allowed me to earn a living and maybe a career. His intelligence cannot be overstated, but I will forever remember his generosity and mischievous smile.
The picture shows Davo at Muir Woods, July 06, 2017
