On the occasion of this anniversary of the Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention, I accept the invitation to offer personal reflections on the earlier days of the Society and the importance of the discipline. My focus is on what few contributions I have offered, but more, on the value of having the teratologist's perspective on other aspects of my career in medical genetics and genetic epidemiology. Treating my professional life as a development biologist (of which teratologists are a breed), I recount the institutions I have been at, but more importantly, the people I have been influenced by, more often than not accomplished teratologists. The one big thought I wish to leave is the primacy and criticality of being mentored and mentoring at ALL stages of a career.

中文翻译：

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边际畸形学家的喜悦和责任。

在出生缺陷研究与预防协会成立一周年之际，我接受邀请，对协会的早期发展以及该学科的重要性进行个人思考。我的注意力集中在我所提供的很少的贡献上，而更多的是在我的医学遗传学和遗传流行病学其他方面对畸形专家的看法的价值。我将自己的职业生涯视为一名发展生物学家（其中有畸形学家），我叙述了自己所处的机构，但更重要的是，我所受的人们所影响的人往往多于未完成的畸形学家。我希望离开的一个大想法是，在职业的各个阶段进行辅导和指导是至高无上的。