Frederick Naftolin’s MD is from the University of California, San Francisco, and his D.Phil. from Oxford University. His Obstetrics and Gynecology residency was at UCLA and his Endocrinology Fellowship at U. Washington. He was a Guggenheim Fellow and NIH Fogarty Fellow (twice) and visiting professor at U. Geneva (SW), Complutense U (SP), and Weitzmann Institute (IL). He was Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at McGill University, Canada, (1975-8) and Yale University (1978-2000). Since 2005, he is Research Professor (Obstetrics and Gynecology), New York University, and Director of the NYU undergraduate course, “Human Reproduction”.
Professor Naftolin is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, ad eundum member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and a Fellow of the International Academy of Human Reproduction. He is a member of numerous American clinical/research societies.
He was President of the Society for Reproductive Investigation (SRI) and of the North American Menopause Society and has received their highest awards for research. He has been honored by the establishment of a named award for mentorship, given annually by the SRI. He is a recipient of the Arnaldo Bruno award from the Italian Academy of Science.
He was for 25 years the Director of the Yale Reproductive Biology Program, and for 20 years a Co-PI for the Yale Department of Biology Training Program. He was for 15 years a co-principal investigator and Head of the Admissions Committee of the NIH Reproductive Scientist Development Program.
He was editor of the Reproductive Biology Division of the American Journal of Zoology, a founding co-editor of Psychoneuroendocrinology, and is Associate Editor of Reproductive Sciences. He is on the editorial Board of six journals.
Among his scientific contributions is the discovery of estrogen synthetase in the brain, the first observation of the pulsatile nature of gonadotrophin secretion in men and women, the discovery of estrogen-induced synaptic plasticity in the brain, and the presence of a complete renin-angiotensin system in the human ovary. He and colleagues have defined estrogen-regulation of several enzymes and proteins in normal and cancerous tissues.
His academic interests are multi-organ estrogen actions and teaching/mentorship.