“Real progress is made when industry and regulatory authorities tackle a problem together on the basis of sound scientific principles and hard data that support decision-making.”

• — Dr. John C. Petricciani

John Petricciani was born in Sacramento, California. He had a passion for science from an early age. He received his bachelor’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, his master of science in chemistry from the University of Nevada, and his M.D. from Stanford University. He completed his pediatric internship at Buffalo Children’s Hospital in New York.

In 1968, Dr. Petricciani joined the Public Health Service and was assigned to the Division of Biologics Standards (DBS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He was a medical officer in the Laboratory of Pathology. When the DBS was administratively transferred from the NIH to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Petricciani stayed on in Pathology, rising to the rank of Deputy Director of the Division of Pathology by 1976. He continued to advance quickly at the FDA and became the Assistant Director of Clinical Research, the Special Assistant to the FDA Commissioner, and Director of the Bio-Research Monitoring Program.