50 Notable alumni of
Weill Cornell Medical College
Updated:
Weill Cornell Medical College is 1204th in the world, 431st in North America, and 404th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 50 notable alumni from Weill Cornell Medical College sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Anthony Fauci
- Enrolled in Weill Cornell Medical College
- 1962-1966 graduated with Doctor of Medicine
- Occupations
- immunologistphysicianresearcher
- Biography
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Anthony Stephen Fauci is an American physician-scientist and immunologist who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022, and the chief medical advisor to the president from 2021 to 2022. Fauci was one of the world's most frequently cited scientists across all scientific journals from 1983 to 2002. In 2008, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, for his work on the AIDS relief program PEPFAR.
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Mae Jemison
- Enrolled in Weill Cornell Medical College
- In 1981 graduated with Doctor of Medicine
- Occupations
- physicianastronautchildren's writerphysicistprofessor
- Biography
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Mae Carol Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. Jemison joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1987 and was selected to serve for the STS-47 mission, during which the Endeavour orbited the Earth for nearly eight days on September 12–20, 1992.
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Ruth Westheimer
- Occupations
- writerstage actorsniperuniversity teachertelevision actor
- Biography
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Karola Ruth Westheimer, better known as Dr. Ruth, was a German and American sex therapist and talk show host.
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Steve Pieczenik
- Occupations
- science fiction writerwriterpsychiatristnovelist
- Biography
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Steve R. Pieczenik is a Cuban-American psychiatrist, author, publisher, and conspiracy theorist. In 1976, he was made Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance and James Baker. He was later a consultant of the United States Department of State.
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C. Everett Koop
- Occupations
- pediatric surgeonphysician
- Biography
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Charles Everett Koop was an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator who served as the 13th surgeon general of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989. According to the Associated Press, "Koop was the only surgeon general to become a household name" due to his frequent public presence around the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
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Peter J. Hotez
- Occupations
- university teacherpediatricianwritervaccinologist
- Biography
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Peter Jay Hotez is an American scientist, pediatrician, and advocate in the fields of global health, vaccinology, and neglected tropical disease control. He serves as founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also Director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics. He also serves as a University Professor of Biology at Baylor University.
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Robert H. Lustig
- Occupations
- university teacherpediatricianphysicianendocrinologist
- Biography
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Robert H. Lustig is an American pediatric endocrinologist. He is professor emeritus of pediatrics in the division of endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he specialized in neuroendocrinology and childhood obesity. He is also director of UCSF's WATCH program (Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health), and president and co-founder of the non-profit Institute for Responsible Nutrition.
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Ida S. Scudder
- Occupations
- missionary
- Biography
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Ida Sophia Scudder was a third-generation American medical missionary in India. She sought to improve the plight of Indian women by fighting against bubonic plague, cholera and leprosy. In 1918, she started a teaching hospital, the Christian Medical College & Hospital, in Vellore, India.
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Robert Jay Lifton
- Occupations
- historianauthorwriteruniversity teacherpeace activist
- Biography
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Robert Jay Lifton is an American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of wars and political violence, and for his theory of thought reform. He was an early proponent of the techniques of psychohistory.
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Nan Hayworth
- Enrolled in Weill Cornell Medical College
- In 1985 graduated with Doctor of Medicine
- Occupations
- ophthalmologistpoliticianphysicianbusinessperson
- Biography
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Nan Alison Hayworth is an American ophthalmologist and former congresswoman for New York's 19th congressional district. A Republican, she was elected in 2010.
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Robert W. Holley
- Occupations
- biochemistchemist
- Biography
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Robert William Holley was an American biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 (with Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall Warren Nirenberg) for describing the structure of alanine transfer RNA, linking DNA and protein synthesis.
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Margaret Hamburg
- Enrolled in Weill Cornell Medical College
- Studied medicine
- Occupations
- politicianphysicianhealth administrator
- Biography
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Margaret Ann "Peggy" Hamburg is an American physician and public health administrator, who is serving as the chair of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and co-chair of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP). She served as the 21st Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from May 2009 to April 2015.
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Dean Edell
- Years
- 1941-.. (age 84)
- Occupations
- ophthalmologistmedical writerradio personality
- Biography
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Dean Edell is an American physician and broadcaster who hosted the Dr. Dean Edell radio program, a syndicated radio talk show which aired live from 1979 until December 10, 2010. He was also nationally syndicated in television as a medical news reporter and host of his own television shows including NBC's Dr. Dean.
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Ellen S. Baker
- Occupations
- astronautphysician
- Biography
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Ellen Louise Shulman Baker is an American physician and a former NASA astronaut. Baker is a veteran of three shuttle flights and logged more than 686 hours in space. Baker served as Chief of the Education/Medical Branch of the NASA Astronaut Office until her retirement in 2011 after more than 30 years of service to NASA.
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Janet G. Travell
- Years
- 1901-1997 (aged 96)
- Occupations
- cardiologistphysician
- Biography
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Janet Graham Travell was an American physician and medical researcher.
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Bettina Warburg
- Occupations
- psychiatristpsychoanalyst
- Biography
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Bettina Warburg was a psychiatrist and a member of the Warburg family banking dynasty.
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James Peake
- Enrolled in Weill Cornell Medical College
- Graduated with Doctor of Medicine
- Occupations
- military physiciansurgeon
- Biography
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James Benjamin Peake was the sixth United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs, serving from 2007 to 2009. In 2004, he retired from a 38-year United States Army career. He also served as the 40th Surgeon General of the United States Army.
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Emily Barringer
- Years
- 1876-1961 (aged 85)
- Occupations
- surgeonphysiciangynecologist
- Biography
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Emily Dunning Barringer was the world's first female ambulance surgeon and the first woman to secure a surgical residency.
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Elizabeth Nabel
- Occupations
- cardiologistscientist
- Biography
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Elizabeth Nabel is an American cardiologist and Executive Vice President of Strategy at ModeX Therapeutics and OPKO Health. Prior to this role, she served as President of Brigham Health and its Brigham and Women's Hospital, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
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Philip Levine
- Occupations
- hematologistscientistpathologist
- Biography
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Philip Levine was an immuno-hematologist whose clinical research advanced knowledge on the Rhesus factor, Hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN) and blood transfusion.
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Jay C. Buckey
- Occupations
- politicianphysicianastronautmilitary officer
- Biography
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Jay Clark Buckey, Jr. is an American physician and astronaut who flew aboard one Space Shuttle mission (STS-90) as a Payload Specialist. Buckey briefly ran for the Democratic nomination to challenge New Hampshire Senator John E. Sununu, a first term Republican, when he was up for re-election in 2008. Buckey withdrew from the race when former Governor Jeanne Shaheen entered the race.
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William C. Menninger
- Occupations
- psychiatrist
- Biography
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William Claire Menninger was a co-founder with his brother Karl and his father of The Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas, an internationally known center for treatment of behavioral disorders.
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Lisa Staiano-Coico
- Occupations
- academic
- Biography
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Lisa Frances Staiano-Coico is an American microbiologist. She served as the 12th president of the City College of the City University of New York from 2010 to 2016.
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Prabhjot Singh
- Years
- 1982-.. (age 43)
- Biography
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Prabhjot Singh is an American scientist, physician and healthcare researcher.
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Alexander Langmuir
- Occupations
- biologistepidemiologist
- Biography
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Alexander Duncan Langmuir was an American epidemiologist who served as Chief Epidemiologist of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 1949 to 1970, developing the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) as a training program for epidemiologists.
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Jimmie C. Holland
- Occupations
- psychiatristuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Jimmie Coker Holland was a founder of the field of psycho-oncology. In 1977, she worked with two colleagues to establish a full-time psychiatric service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The program was one of the first of its kind in cancer treatment, and trained its psychologists to specialize in issues specific to people with cancer.
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Charles V. Paterno
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
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Charles Vincent Paterno was an Italian-born American real estate developer. He was called the "Napoleon of the Manhattan Skyscraper Builders".
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Carlos Cordon-Cardo
- Occupations
- physicianresearcheroncologist
- Biography
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Carlos Cordon-Cardo is a Spanish-born American physician and scientist known for his research in experimental pathology and molecular oncology. He holds the "Irene Heinz Given and John LaPorte Given" Chair in Pathology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
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George Makari
- Years
- 1960-.. (age 65)
- Occupations
- historianpsychoanalystpsychiatrist
- Biography
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George Jack Makari is a psychiatrist and historian. He serves as director of the DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy, and the Arts, which encompasses the Oskar Diethelm Library at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he is also a Professor of Psychiatry. Makari's work has been widely reviewed, and he is well known among historians of the mind sciences, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis for Revolution in Mind, The Creation of Psychoanalysis and Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind. His recent work, Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia, won the 87th annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in the nonfiction category. He was the Director and Attending Psychiatrist of a sliding scale Psychotherapy Clinic at Payne Whitney Clinic from 1991-2016.
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Elaine Jaffe
- Years
- 1943-.. (age 82)
- Occupations
- pathologist
- Biography
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Elaine Sarkin Jaffe is a senior National Cancer Institute (NCI) investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) most well known for her contribution to hematopathology. She completed her medical education at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania, receiving her M.D. degree from University of Pennsylvania in 1969. After an internship at Georgetown University she joined NCI as a resident in anatomic pathology, and has been a senior investigator since 1974, focusing on the classification and definition of lymphomas. Jaffe's early work helped to provide a deeper understanding of the origin of lymphomas, especially follicular lymphoma. Her team notably elucidated the difference between T cell and B cell lymphomas.
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Avery August
- Occupations
- immunologist
- Biography
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Avery August is a Belizean-born American scientist who is currently a professor of immunology and vice provost at Cornell University.
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Gerald Fischbach
- Occupations
- neuroscientist
- Biography
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Gerald D. Fischbach is an American neuroscientist. He received his M.D. from the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University in 1965 before beginning his research career at the National Institutes of Health in 1966, where his research focused on the mechanisms of neuromuscular junctions. After his tenure at the National Institutes of Health, Fischbach was a professor at Harvard University Medical School from 1972 to 1981 and from 1990 to 1998 and the Washington University School of Medicine from 1981 to 1990. In 1998, he was named the director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke before becoming the Vice President and Dean of the Health and Biomedical Sciences, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Columbia University from 2001 to 2006. Gerald Fischbach currently serves as the scientific director overseeing the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. Throughout Fischbach's career, much of his research has focused on the formation and function of the neuromuscular junction, which stemmed from his innovative use of cell culture to study synaptic mechanisms.
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Romeyn Beck Hough
- Occupations
- botanistphysicianexplorerinventor
- Biography
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Romeyn Beck Hough was an American physician and botanist best known for creating The American Woods, a 14-volume collection of wood samples from across North America.
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Albert Kapikian
- Occupations
- physicianvirologist
- Biography
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Albert Zaven Kapikian was an Armenian-American virologist who developed the first licensed vaccine against rotavirus, the most common cause of severe diarrhea in infants. He was awarded the Sabin Gold Medal for his pioneering work on the vaccine. He is the 13th recipient of this recognition, awarded annually by the Sabin Vaccine Institute. Called the father of human gastroenteritis virus research, Kapikian identified the first norovirus, initially called Norwalk virus, in 1972; and he and his colleagues at the National Institutes of Health identified the hepatitis A virus in 1973.
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John F. Kurtzke
- Occupations
- professorneurologistepidemiologist
- Biography
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John Francis Kurtzke was a neuroepidemiologist and Professor of Neurology at Georgetown University who is best known for his creation of the Expanded Disability Status Scale and for his research on multiple sclerosis (MS). After graduating from Cornell University Medical College in 1952, Dr. Kurtzke started his career in the field of Neurology as Chief of the Neurology Service at the Veteran's Affairs (VA) Medical Centers in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, from 1956 to 1963, and then in Washington, DC, from 1963 to 1995, where he became Professor of Neurology at Georgetown University. At the time of his death, he held the title of Professor Emeritus at Georgetown University.
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Michel Kahaleh
- Occupations
- researcher
- Biography
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Michel Kahaleh is an American gastroenterologist and an expert in therapeutic endoscopy.
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Richard M. Ehrlich
- Occupations
- photographersurgeon
- Biography
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Richard M. Ehrlich is a surgeon and photographer. Born in New York City on March 12, 1938, he obtained a BA in 1959 from Cornell University, where he was a member of the Quill and Dagger society. He has been a professor and physician for over 40 years, and has been recognized as a fine art photographer. The New York Times said his photographs "suggest ephemerality from a broader historical perspective" and that they "look like staged fantasies".
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Helen Farr Sloan
- Occupations
- painter
- Biography
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Helen Farr Sloan was a patron of the arts, educator, accomplished artist, and the second wife of artist John Sloan.
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Lori L. Altshuler
- Occupations
- psychiatrist
- Biography
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Lori Altshuler was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and held the Julia S. Gouw Endowed Chair for Mood Disorders. Altshuler was the Director of the UCLA Mood Disorders Research Program and the UCLA Women's Life Center, each being part of the Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA.
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Kristine Mann
- Occupations
- writeruniversity teacherpsychologist
- Biography
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Kristine Mann was an American educator and physician, with a particular interest in working women's health. She was an early practitioner of psychoanalysis in North America.
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Leston Havens
- Occupations
- psychiatristpsychotherapist
- Biography
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Leston Laycock Havens M.D. was an American psychiatrist, psychotherapist and medical educator.
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Carol Remmer Angle
- Years
- 1927-.. (age 98)
- Occupations
- toxicologist
- Biography
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Carol Remmer Angle is an American pediatrician, nephrologist, and toxicologist. Angle is known as one of the nation's leading researchers on lead poisoning. She is professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Angle joined UNMC in 1954 and was one of the first women to serve as chair of an academic medical department (pediatrics). She also served as chief of pediatric nephrology, director of the pediatric intensive care unit, and director of medical toxicology. In 1957, Angle along with Dr. Matilda McIntire, founded one of the country's first poison control centers. Angle is a founding member and a prior president of the American Association of Poison Control Centers. For forty years, Angle served as an expert for NIEHS, National Institutes of Health and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency panels investigating heavy metal toxicity. Angle continues as a toxicology consultant, reviewer and editor.
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Bruce R. Korf
- Years
- 1944-.. (age 81)
- Occupations
- physicianresearchergeneticist
- Biography
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Bruce Richard Korf is a medical geneticist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In April 2009, he began a two-year term as president of the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG), a professional organization.
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Hilda Crosby Standish
- Years
- 1902-2005 (aged 103)
- Occupations
- physicianobstetrician
- Biography
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Hilda Crosby Standish was a pioneer in the birth control movement in the state of Connecticut. In 1935, she became medical director of the Maternal Health Center in Hartford, the state's first birth control clinic. Dr. Standish was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 1994.
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Morton Beiser
- Occupations
- psychiatrist
- Biography
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Morton Beiser is a Canadian professor, psychiatrist and epidemiologist known for his research in the fields of immigration and resettlement.
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John P. Donohue
- Occupations
- surgeonmilitary officerurologist
- Biography
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John P. Donohue was an American physician. He was the Chairman of the Urology Department and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Indiana University School of Medicine. He pioneered treatments for testicular cancer, including the nerve-sparing technique. His work with Dr. Lawrence Einhorn led to an increase in cure rate of testicular cancer from 5% to 90%. He studied under Wyland F. Leadbetter. He began his career as a United States Navy officer while serving as the ship's surgeon aboard the aircraft carrier USS Wasp.
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George Foster Herben
- Years
- 1893-1966 (aged 73)
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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George Foster Herben was an American physician. He spent his career in New York, predominantly treating tuberculosis. After interning at Brooklyn Hospital, Herben worked at the Loomis Sanitarium by Liberty, and then at the House of Rest at Sprain Ridge, a tuberculosis hospital and preventorium in Yonkers. At the House of Rest he variously served as physician in chief and as medical director. Herben developed and published several new treatments during this time, including a replacement for conventional iron lungs.
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John I. Gallin
- Occupations
- immunologist
- Biography
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John I. Gallin was an American medical researcher who has contributed to the understanding of innate immunity but especially chronic granulomatous disease, a phagocyte disorder. Gallin was appointed director of the NIH Clinical Center on May 1, 1994, and served until January 8, 2017. He serves as the chief scientific officer for the Clinical Center and associate director for clinical research at the National Institutes of Health. He died Oct. 10, 2024.
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Wilbur Downs
- Years
- 1913-1991 (aged 78)
- Occupations
- biologistvirologist
- Biography
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Wilbur George Downs, was a naturalist, virologist and clinical professor of epidemiology and public health at the Yale School of Medicine and the Yale School of Public Health.
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Connie Guion
- Years
- 1882-1971 (aged 89)
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
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Connie Myers Guion was an American professor of medicine. She was influential in developing health care systems for the poor in New York City and training programs for new health care professionals at Cornell Medical Center. She founded the Cornell Pay Clinic, which supported the poor in the city and brought in training. She was the first woman to be named professor of clinical medicine, and in 1963 became the first living woman physician to have a building named after her (New York Hospital's Connie Guion Building). Up until her death, she made many house calls and ran her own private clinic.
