Aside from being the former Chief of Medicine at the Montreal General Hospital and current Executive Director of the Clinical Research Centre of the McGill University Health Centre, McGill's Dr. Phil Gold is also a grandfather, world-traveller and, believe it or not, clown collector.
At McGill, I teach... in the department of Physiology, the department of Medicine, primarily in the second year now with the introduction to Clinical Medicine, and in Oncology. Over the years, I've taught in virtually every aspect of medicine on the wards and in the classroom. Effectively, it keeps me out of mischief.
If I wasn't a professor, I would be... a salesman, because I enjoy selling. In fact, I put myself through school by selling encyclopaedias, which I loved. The interesting part about anything is that, no matter what you do, you're always selling. I don't know what I would sell, but I would sell something.
I enjoy my field of study because... it's overarching. Immunology covers every system and every discipline that's ever studied. It plays a role in Neurology, Gastroenterology, Endocrinology, Surgery, Surgical infection, OB-GYN, you name it. Everything has an immunologic component.
The best part about my job is... talking to students and residents and young staff and trying to help them in what they want to do, because sometimes, if you know the terrain, you can do in 15 minutes what sometimes takes weeks or even months for someone who's not sure how to go about it. So that's my entertainment for the day.
My favourite drink is... coffee, until around nine at night. Then tea. Earl Grey.
If I could meet anyone... there are a number of people I would really love to meet. I would love to know whether Mozart was really nuts, because I thoroughly enjoy listening to his music and there has to be more than we know about him. Newton was a remarkable man and the idea of actually creating mathematics to explain your data is wonderful. Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci have always fascinated me.
2008 Woodie Awards
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