In Roman mythology, Janus was the god of entrances, thresholds, and transitions. He’s dual-headed, with one head looking forward and the other behind, signifying beginnings and endings.

This year’s Henry Gray Distinguished Educator Award winner, Michael Hortsch, said he felt a bit like Janus when he found out that he had won AAA’s highest education award. “He has two faces, one is looking forward to a future full of exciting possibilities, the other is looking backward and saying, ‘Hey, am I getting old?’ But ultimately, it’s about attaining wisdom, knowing what’s important and what’s less important,” Hortsch explained.

Hortsch, professor of Cell & Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan Medical School, was shocked to learn he had won the Distinguished Educator Award ahead of this year’s Anatomy Connected meeting.

“I always thought, maybe I will win it one day into the far future, but I’m not there yet,” he said. “I know some of the previous winners, I admire them and consider them my mentors. As this was the first time I was nominated, it was like, ‘Hey, did this really happen?’ I also know a lot of other excellent colleagues who are equally deserving and have done great educational work.”

The Children’s Book That Started It All

Hortsch grew up in West Germany and developed an early interest in science. “If I condense it into one word, it’s curiosity. I wanted to know how the world works,” he said. The trigger was a book about astronomy and the earth, which he received as a little boy and which he still has. “I’m always fascinated when hearing about different areas of science and want to learn more about them.”

In high school, Hortsch went to the other extreme and became fascinated by the smallest of structures – atoms and subatomic particles, but later settled on studying biochemistry at the Free University in West-Berlin. He then got his PhD in Biology from the University of Heidelberg in Germany, before working in the laboratory of Dr. Corey Goodman at the University of California at Berkeley.

Subsequently, he took an assistant professor job at the University of Michigan. However, teaching histology was something he was unfamiliar with, despite being a cell biologist. “I entered my postdoctoral advisor’s office and expected comforting words when telling him about me having to teach histology at Michigan. But the dry answer was, ‘It will be good for you.’” He was so right.

Now, more than 30 years later, Hortsch still teaches histology at the University of Michigan. “When I started in 1991, half of my department was teaching histology to medical and dental students. Now it’s just me,” he said, while noting that histology has been at the forefront of new teaching paradigms and its role in the biomedical curriculum has changed over the last 50 years. “Even the “old” anatomical sciences, you can teach them in new ways and with new technologies,” he said.

‘Never Stop Learning’

The changes in teaching and technology led Hortsch and two of his AAA colleagues, Drs. Haviva M. Goldman and Lisa M.J. Lee, to create AAA’s Virtual Microscopy Database in 2017. The VMD is a central repository where a community of anatomy and histology scholars and researchers can share a large selection of virtual tissue slides for enhancing education, research, and scholarship.

In addition, Hortsch has authored a number of articles about histology education, many published in AAA’s Anatomical Sciences Education, most recently in the 2023 May/June issue “Histology as a paradigm for a science-based learning experience: Visits by histology education spirits of past, present, and future”. In case the reader can’t tell from the title, Hortsch uses Charles Dicken’s “The Christmas Carol” as a vehicle to share the history of histology. “Having a clever title is a great way to get students’ and readers’ attention,” Hortsch chuckled.

A natural storyteller, Hortsch also reached back into children’s literature for his award presentation at the AAA’s Anatomy Connected meeting in March. Hortsch donned lederhosen and renamed himself “Hänsel” of Hänsel & Gretel to offer “Pebbles of Wisdom -- Each a lesson in becoming an award-worthy educator.”

“For humanity, telling stories was one of the first ways of teaching. Therefore, a great educator should make sure to tell a good story, as that will motivate learners,” Hortsch says about his flare for storytelling.

One of his “pebbles of wisdom,” is that a great educator must also be a good learner, and Hortsch says he has learned a lot from his students and colleagues over the years, especially from his fellow AAA members.

“At AAA, I find a community of kindred spirits, people who have similar goals and their own special gifts from whom I can learn and who will hopefully learn from me. That is a real strength and the future of an association like AAA,” he said. “As I often tell non-member anatomy educators, AAA is a community of like-minded professionals who are eager to share their resources and experiences.”