While in medical school, Matthew Dolan ’81 considered specializing in orthopedic surgery for a job involving materials science, but he quickly realized he didn’t have the innate skills needed for that type of work.
“I’ll be honest with you, I can’t parallel park,” he joked. “You can think of a lot of different things, but I think if you find something that you’re good at and that excites you, you can just go for it.”
Dolan certainly has. He’s solved problems from the lab to the bedside and beyond. Dolan has been a leader in immunology and virology both in the U.S. and abroad through the U.S. Air Force, and served as director of the Defense Medical Operations Laboratory. He’s worked on everything from food poisoning and Ebola to biological warfare and COVID-19, and has been a guest speaker on NPR’s Science Friday.
“It’s fun, it’s fun, I believe in it and I try to spread that, and it’s contagious,” he said. “You can influence people with that excitement.”
Puzzle Pieces
Dolan looks back fondly on his time at MIT and says he still keeps in touch with many of the “smart” and “fun” friends he made at Cambridge.
He points out that MIT has also uniquely prepared him for some of the most rewarding challenges of his career so far. A seventh-year major, Dolan, of course, took many non-biology classes as part of his undergraduate degree. Organic chemistry was the foundation for understanding toxicology while studying chemical weapons, and pathogens such as Legionella, which causes pneumonia and spreads through water systems such as ice makers and air conditioners , are treated as the intersection of public health and ecology.
“I learned that learning can be an intense experience,” Dolan recalls. “You can be proactive in your learning, you can learn and excel in different areas, and you can bring all kinds of knowledge and knowledgeable people together to work toward a solution.”
For example, Dolan worked in the Peruvian Amazon to solve a public health crisis involving a sharp increase in child mortality from malaria. The cause was several steps removed from the problem at hand: human agricultural activities had affected the Amazon’s tributaries, causing once-fast-flowing streams and rivers to stop and stagnate. This change in the environment created conditions for the proliferation of several species of “hard-biting” mosquitoes.
“Having a comprehensive, contextual view of a scientific or biological problem is useful and important for some people,” he says. “Putting the pieces of the puzzle together like this is rewarding.”
Choose to Serve
Dolan says the key to finding meaning in work, especially in difficult times, is a quote from Alsatian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer: “The only ones among you who are truly happy are those who seek and find ways to be of service.”
One of Dolan’s early formative experiences was working at the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, at a time when there was no effective treatment: No matter how hard you worked, patients were going to die.
“Failure is not an option, unless you have to fail.” “Don’t let failure destroy you,” he said. “There are so many other wars out there. To ignore them and only focus on your own pain is self-indulgence.”
Long-term effects
Dolan said he couldn’t pick a favorite country, but he’s always been impressed by how people value the opportunity to advance science and medicine when given the resources and respect. Ultimately, everyone he worked with was committed to solving problems and improving lives, regardless of their differences.
Dolan worked in Russia after the fall of the Berlin Wall on HIV/AIDS in Moscow and tuberculosis in the Russian Far East. Relations with Russia are strained, to say the least, but Dolan is optimistic about a brighter future.
“People who were once bitter rivals can continue to work well together,” he said. “Sometimes peace leads to partnership. Remembering that gives me great hope.”
Dolan knew his most lasting impact would likely be education. Time will pass and discoveries may be forgotten by history, but education and training continues and spreads. In addition to mentoring the next generation of medical professionals, Dolan has worked with the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense to develop laboratory biosafety and biosecurity programs and teaches those programs around the world.
“Working on prevention gives us the opportunity to address process problems before they become people problems — patient care problems,” he says. “I’ve been so impressed with the brave and dedicated people who’ve worked with me.”
