Simon Gelman, MD, PhD, FANZCA, in the mid-1980s conducting an experiment.

Dr. Simon Gelman has been a member of the FAER Legacy Society since 2012. As one of the first to join the program, Dr. Gelman was offered the opportunity to tell his story through a legacy letter. A small portion of the letter is below.

I have been giving money to FAER because of two reasons. One of them is to give back the moral debt I owe. I received grant money to do my research as a young (rather old with a status of junior) doctor early in my career. My first success was the FAER award. My first grant affected me because it gave me exposure and recognition in my field of research in anesthesiology. Colleagues began to respect my research.

The second reason I give to FAER is because my profession’s future depends on research. The FAER grant helped me to start. The FAER grant also leverages other grants such as NIH funding. FAER is important to my specialty and has made me happy. I do not know how much I have given to my specialty, but I do know what my specialty did for me—and it did a lot. So I'm trying to pay a little bit back; that’s it.

I see it as a collective action. When I give money together with other colleagues, we all help dozens of younger doctors succeed. Some of these people will become leaders in our specialty. Young doctors start their careers with FAER money, and that inspires them to give back. It is pleasant for me to learn that somebody else is building upon what I started doing twenty years ago.

Click below to download and read Dr. Gelman's full Legacy Letter.