Hiale Serros is a medical doctor and scientist, specializing in pathology and neurophysiology.
Biography
Early Life
Hiale Serros was born in 9 BBY on Coruscant, the son of lower-class parents. From a young age, Serros realized the misfortune of his birthright and swore that he would rise to great success, despite his disadvantages. Serros approached his education with an intense passion that set him apart from his peers and quickly rose through the academic ranks. He graduated second in his class behind his close friend, Arik Shathis, with whom he formed a tight bond in their shared passion for advanced scientific and technical topics.
University
Serros and Shathis were roommates at Imperial University. Like his friend Arik, Hiale also chose to double major and studied microbiology and neuroscience. He and Arik achieved summa cum laude honors, but again would come in second to his close friend in class ranking.
Medical Career
While Arik would eventually return to the Imperial University Coruscant campus to obtain his medical training, Hiale ventured to the medical campus on the core world of Marngar III for his advanced degree. No longer in the shadow of his friend, Hiale found a certain momentum in his training that he had not experienced prior. In short course, Hiale would demonstrate to his professors an exceptional aptitude in both theory and application of advanced medical principles and would eventually co-author more than twenty academic research papers as a medical student. This unprecedented feat would bring a certain fame to the young physician-scientist.
Hiale completed his medical with specialties in pathology and neurophysiology. Instead of taking a more settled post as an intern or fellow at a single medical unit, as most medical graduates do, Hiale took a series of temporary posts at highly esteemed medical universities across the galaxy as a visiting professor. His research, however, maintained constant progress as he and his small research group would relocate to more than a dozen universities in the few years after completing his medical degree. This experience gave Serros a broad exposure to the various physiologies of the galaxy, and particularly unusual experience in the great variety of diseases plaguing each population.
At some point during this period, Hiale decided he wanted to establish a much larger research group which would not be so easily relocated from university-to-university. Coincidentally, his old friend Arik Shathis had succeeded to the position of chair of the clinical pathology department at Lamoramora Medcenter on Coruscant. In 22 ABY, Shathis would offer Serros a reportedly fantastically lucrative package in order to relocate his now famous research program to the campus. Enticed by the offer to work closely with his friend again, Serros accepted. In the year that followed his relocation to Coruscant
Infection
In 25 ABY Arik and Hiale were working the case of a patient with an unknown, degenerative neurological disease. The symptoms of the diseases included dysfunctional motor control, manifesting as unsteadiness at first but eventually becoming severe tremors and ultimately impacting other faculties such as vision and speech. A rare aspect of the disease was its transmission by touch alone. It was further found that the disease could rapidly adapt and cross species.
During the management of their patient, both Arik and Hiale contracted the disease. Utilizing their shared education and the full resources of the Lamoramora medical center, the two physicians managed to develop a therapeutic treatment for the disease which would prevent transmission, but had no effect on the neuro-physical symptoms. Despite the complaints of fellow physicians, the board of the medical center refused to terminate the contracts of Arik and Hiale out of gratitude for their service to the facility. Instead, they were moved into administrative positions and would eventually jointly run the entire medical center.
The two would continue to secretly solicit experimental treatment, refusing to succumb to the disease while attempting to minimize the outward appearance of their degenerative states to all but a select few individuals.
Experimental Research
Between 25 ABY and 28 ABY, Serros would constantly deploy his research team, who were aware of his medical state, throughout the galaxy looking for cases which displayed similar symptoms to his disease. Left alone in his laboratory, Serros would perform countless experiments on himself to try and rid himself of his affliction, unwilling to accept failure in his own abilities. The experiments took a dark toll on his personality in adding to the complications of his already decaying mental faculties.
Assistance on Tarthos
In 28 ABY, Arik Shathis would once again call upon Serros for assistance with a medical mystery on Tarthos. In the midst of a viral epidemic, Shathis found that his own expertise was insufficient to address the needs of the crisis. With the help of Serros, the two would successfully establish a quarantine-and-treat strategy that avoided complete catastrophe on the Tarthosians.
Seen as saviors in the eyes of the population, the two became local celebrities. Arik found himself elected as local mayor in the wake of the previous mayor succumbing to the now-eradicated virus. Serros, on the other hand, had retreated from the public eye and returned to his lab on Coruscant.
Hermit-Scientist
Little is known of Hiale Serros' activities after the events on Tarthos and his return to Coruscant. The scientist, secluded in his laboratory, is virtually never seen outside of his own research staff, who remain secretive at the will of their leader.