Scientific Contributions of Bruce H. Davis (1951–2024) to the International Society for Laboratory Hematology and the <i>International Journal of Laboratory Hematology</i>

We regret to inform the membership of the International Society of Laboratory Hematology (ISLH) and the readership of the International Journal of Laboratory Hematology (IJLH) that our colleague Bruce H. Davis, MD, passed away in December 2024. As president (J.L.F.) and past president (T.I.G.) of IJLH, we have the great honor of reflecting on the scientific legacy of Dr. Davis. Dr. Davis's professional engagement extended beyond the boundaries of ISLH and included active participation in our peer organizations, the International Clinical Cytometry Society (ICCS) and the International Council of Standards in Hematology (ICSH). Because we anticipate that the ICCS and ICSH will also share their own messages regarding Dr. Davis, we have decided to confine our remarks to the important contributions of Dr. Davis to the scientific endeavors of ISLH and IJLH. Bruce H. Davis earned his bachelor's degree at Cornell University (Ithaca, New York, USA) and was a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, where he received his medical degree. He then completed a residency in anatomic pathology and a fellowship in hematopathology at the University of Colorado and the University of California, Irvine, respectively. His academic career proceeded with appointments at institutions such as the State University of New York at Syracuse (Syracuse, New York, USA), Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire, USA), and William Beaumont Hospital (Royal Oak, Michigan, USA), where he developed his expertise in diagnostic flow cytometry and developed a National Institutes of Health-funded research program. Dr. Davis was a prolific author, with > 100 publications to his credit, and was a member of numerous pathology and clinical laboratory organizations. We would like to highlight some of his many accomplishments that would be particularly important to the membership of ISLH and the readers of IJLH. He was a founding member of ISLH (1992) and served as a board member and as the organization's treasurer. He was a constant presence at ISLH's annual congresses for many years and shared his expertise as a speaker and session chair. Along with Kandice Kottke Marchant, MD, PhD, he coedited the first edition of the very successful ISLH-sponsored textbook Laboratory Hematology Practice [1], which provided a comprehensive approach to hematology from a laboratory perspective. In view of his many valuable contributions to ISLH, he was given the prestigious Berend Houwen Award in 2008. Dr. Davis's involvement in the scholarly mission of ISLH extended to its sponsored journals, Laboratory Hematology and IJLH. Papers published by Dr. Davis in these two journals from 2001 to the present are summarized in Table 1, along with the number of citations (date of query, February 28, 2026) for each article per the Scopus (Elsevier, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) database. The 14 papers identified by the search were published between 2001 and 2026 and included 7 papers published in Laboratory Hematology and 7 in IJLH. The publications were classified as papers (n = 12), a review (n = 1), and an editorial (n = 1). His work in these journals was highly cited, with an average of 34 citations per article (range 0–166). The topics of the publications reflect Dr. Davis's wide-ranging interests in the field of laboratory hematology, including the description of a standard for hemoglobin measurements that could be used for standardization of this analyte by instrumentation manufacturers [2], quantitation of hemoglobin F by flow cytometry [3], and reticulocyte counting [4, 5]. The 2014 reticulocyte study was his most cited paper to date [4]. A final study, published posthumously [6], is an innovative paper on white blood cell differential counting by flow cytometry. Of course, the scientific career of Dr. Davis is not a complete depiction of the man. Bruce had a fiery personality and was not shy about promoting advances in laboratory hematology, including a better flow cytometry method for hemoglobin F [3], as well as his disdain for the Kleihauer Betke method. He challenged his colleagues to be better physicians and to offer diagnostic testing that improved healthcare for patients. He stretched beyond academic medicine into industry as a founder and CEO at Trillium Diagnostics LLC (Bangor, Maine, USA), a company formed to deliver innovative diagnostic solutions to improve health and well-being worldwide. Bruce was also an avid fisherman and adventurer, traveling with his partner Naomi Culp, also an experienced laboratory hematology professional, around the world to international conferences and to visit friends and colleagues. In sum, Bruce H. Davis was a pioneering visionary in the field of laboratory hematology, with a passion for the field that was obvious to all who knew him, and whose presence is sincerely missed. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.