Gerhard Giebisch, M.D., is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the Yale University School of Medicine. He was born and raised in Vienna, Austria, where he attended elementary and high school and received the M.D. degree from the University of Vienna in 1951. Dr. Giebisch’s original career goal was to be an internist, and he was advised by one of his professors, Erwin Deutsch, to first get basic science research training. Dr. Deutsch referred this eager medical student to Franz von Brücke, the Chairman of Pharmacology, who greatly stimulated the young man’s interest in physiology. While still a student, Dr. Giebisch was first introduced to renal physiology by reading a copy of Homer Smith’s Porter Lectures that he had been given. He also read a book by Otto Spühler on modern methods to study renal function, which led him to contact Dr. Spühler and arrange for a three-month period in his laboratory in Zurich. Dr. Giebisch credits this period with Dr. Spühler as pivotal to his decision to devote his life to renal physiology. He returned to Vienna, finished his medical studies, and was appointed Instructor in Pharmacology in 1951. His first original paper was on the effects of mercurial diuretics and was published in 1952.