S5 E14.1 - Remembering Stephen Harrison: Personal Memories

Send us Fan MailManal Abdelmalek and Naim Alkhouri join co-hosts Jörn Schattenberg, Louise Campbell and Roger Green to share personal memories of co-founder and former co-host Dr. Stephen Harrison. Naim Alkhouri starts the conversation by describing how he met his "friend and mentor," Stephen. He recalls coming to San Antonio in 2017 to work with a different research group and contacting Stephen. Stephen told Naim he had "made the wrong decision" by not joining his team instead. Nonetheless, Naim persisted, and the two began a rich, rewarding friendship and research experience, which Naim describes in greater detail.Jörn Schattenberg says that Naim's story resonates with him. Stephen "support[ed] younger people in the field," including Jörn when he was starting his career in Germany. Historically, there had been challenges in conducting clinical trials in Germany, but Stephen worked with Jörn to overcome these and create a stable structure and base for conducting MASH trials. Jörn notes that the relationship Naim described applies not only to the two of them, but also to many other young researchers. Manal Abdelmalek recalls meeting Stephen in the earliest days of MASH, when a few young researchers shared posters in a "dark corner" of an AASLD meeting. Manal was impressed by Stephen's energy, warmth, curiosity and confidence that what was then called NAFLD would be "big" someday. Louise Campbell recalls meeting Stephen in the early days of SurfingMASH and always being appreciative of his support for nurses and allied professionals and the role they play in patient treatment. She goes on to note that the SurfingMASH podcast's growth affirmed the vision that Stephen and Roger Green had when they started the podcast.Finally, Roger Green shares his story of meeting Stephen at NASH-TAG 2019 and being impressed with how his energy suffused the entire space. Roger goes on to describe the process by which he and Stephen started the podcast and decided to expand its scope.