Dr. John Finlayson

John Finlayson grew up in New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and Ohio. He went to college in Ohio and was pre-med. Instead of going to medical school, he completed a masters and PhD in Biochemistry at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was able to do draft deferment for another year to do a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute of Radiophysics in Sweden.

Dr. Finlayson came back to US in the fall of 1958 and got a commission in the Public Health Service (PHS). He was assigned to the Laboratory of Blood and Blood Products in the NIH Division of Biologics Standards (DBS). He did his two years of service there. After 2.5 years he went into inactive reserve for the PHS and then filled his own role as a civil servant. Then he never left biologics. He was there for the administrative transition from the NIH to the FDA in 1972. He worked in the Coagulation Section of the Laboratory of Blood and Blood Products when still under NIH.