Medicine

Loretta Ford (1920–2025), pioneering nurse practitioner

Loretta Ford was a nurse who co-founded the first nurse practitioner program in the United States.

A. Cornelius Baker (1961–2024), HIV testing advocate

A. Cornelius Baker was a public health policy expert who advocated for extensive HIV/AIDS testing and care, even in the early days of the disease.

Andrew Schally (1926–2024), Nobel Prize winner

Andrew Schally was an endocrinologist whose work studying links between hormones and the brain stem resulted in him sharing a Nobel Prize with neuroscientist Roger Guillemin and physicist Rosalyn Yalow.

John A. Clements (1923–2024), doctor whose research saved infants

John A. Clements was a doctor and researcher who discovered the cause of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and helped develop life-saving treatments for it.

Robin Warren (1937–2024), discovered cause of gastric ulcers

Robin Warren was a pathologist and researcher who won the Nobel Prize for his work in uncovering the cause of peptic ulcers, rewriting our understanding of gut health in the process.

Ann Lurie (1945–2024), nurse who became major philanthropist 

Ann Lurie was a nurse who became one of Chicago’s best known and most generous philanthropists.

Akira Endo (1933–2024), biochemist who found way to fight cholesterol

Akira Endo was a biochemist whose research led to the creation of cholesterol-fighting statin drugs, now some of the most widely prescribed pharmaceuticals in the world.

Dr. Cyril Wecht (1931–2024), famed forensic pathologist

Dr. Cyril Wecht was a longtime forensic pathologist who became a high-profile public official after working on landmark cases like on the assassination of President , the killing, and death. 

Gerald McGinnis (1934–2024), inventor of the CPAP machine

Gerald E. “Jerry” McGinnis was a biomedical engineer who invented the CPAP machine and founded several medical technology companies, including Respironics and Lanz Medical Products.

Roy Calne (1930–2024), pioneering organ transplant surgeon

Roy Calne was a British surgeon who specialized in organ transplants, working with the teams who conducted the first liver transplant, intestinal transplant, and several pioneering combined transplants.

Sidney M. Wolfe (1937–2024), physician who challenged drug companies 

Sidney M. Wolfe was a consumer health watchdog and physician who challenged both drug companies and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and he campaigned to have unsafe drugs taken off the market.

Roland Griffiths (1946–2023), psychedelic-assisted therapies pioneer 

Roland Griffiths was a psychopharmacologist and psychedelics researcher who helped pioneer the study of psychedelic-assisted therapy for depression, anxiety, addiction, and PTSD.

Ferid Murad (1936–2023), Nobel Prize-winning doctor 

Ferid Murad was a doctor and pharmacologist who won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research into how nitric oxide treats heart disease.

Evelyn M. Witkin (1921–2023), discovered how DNA repairs itself 

Evelyn M. Witkin was an award-winning geneticist whose discoveries about how DNA repairs itself opened the door to advances in cancer treatment.

Harald zur Hausen (1936–2023), Nobel Prize-winning virologist 

Harald zur Hausen was a Nobel Prize-winning German virologist who discovered the link between HPV and cervical cancer, and whose work led to the development of a vaccine against cancer-causing human papilloma viruses. 

Paul Berg (1926–2023), Nobel-winning genetics scientist

Paul Berg was an American biochemist whose work in gene splicing helped lay the foundations for the biotech industry. 

Arthur D. Riggs (1939–2022), helped develop synthetic insulin for diabetes treatment

Arthur D. Riggs was a pioneer of biotechnology who helped develop synthetic insulin to treat diabetes.

Dr. Paul Farmer (1959–2022), global health humanitarian

Dr. Paul Farmer was a co-founder of the nonprofit health organization Partners In Health whose mission is to provide proper health care for people around the world living in poverty.  

Luc Montagnier (1932–2022), Nobel winner who co-discovered HIV

Luc Montagnier was a virologist who shared a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for co-discovering HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Jeremiah Stamler (1919–2022), doctor who linked diet and heart disease

Dr. Jeremiah Stamler was a doctor whose research proved that cardiovascular disease was linked to our diet and lifestyle.

Sherif Zaki (1955–2021), CDC pathologist who studied Ebola, COVID-19

Sherif Zaki was a pathologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who studied infectious diseases including Ebola, SARS, and COVID-19.

Dr. Aaron Beck (1921–2021), father of cognitive therapy

Dr. Aaron Beck was a psychotherapist who was a pioneer in the development of cognitive behavioral therapy.

Freddie Fu (1950–2021), pioneer in knee surgery

Dr. Freddie Fu was an orthopaedic surgeon who pioneered new techniques for more successful ACL repair surgery.

José Baselga (1959–2021), oncologist who revolutionized breast cancer treatment

Jos é Baselga was a Spanish oncologist who developed highly effective new drugs for treating breast cancer.

Andrew Brooks (1969–2021), scientist who developed first COVID-19 spit test

Andrew Brooks was a research professor at Rutgers University and CEO of Infinity Biologix, who developed the first FDA-approved rapid saliva test for COVID-19.

Darold Treffert (1933–2020), autism researcher who consulted on “Rain Man”

Darold Treffert was a psychiatrist whose pioneering research helped us better understand autism and savant syndrome.

Timothy Ray Brown (1966–2020), first person cured of HIV infection

Timothy Ray Brown was known as the “Berlin patient,” the first person who was known to have been cured of HIV infection.

Seymour Schwartz (1928–2020), founding editor of definitive surgery textbook

Seymour Schwartz was the founding editor of an influential and essential medical textbook, “Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery.”

Connie Culp (1963–2020), first U.S. recipient of a partial face transplant

Connie Culp was the first U.S. recipient of a partial face transplant, who lived longer than any other face transplant recipient to date.

Flossie Wong-Staal (1946–2020), pioneering HIV researcher

Flossie Wong-Staal was a molecular virologist whose research on HIV was crucial in the development of blood tests to detect the virus.

William Dement (1928–2020), sleep doctor who coined the term “REM”

Dr. William Dement was a scientist who developed the field of sleep research and coined the term “REM,” or rapid eye movement, to describe the stage of sleep when dreaming takes place.

Tomisaku Kawasaki (1925–2020), pediatrician who identified Kawasaki disease

Tomisaku Kawasaki was a Japanese pediatrician who was the first to identify the inflammatory syndrome in children that became known as Kawasaki disease.

Richard C. Friedman (1941–2020), doctor who showed homosexuality was biological

Richard C. Friedman was a psychiatrist whose groundbreaking 1988 book, “Male Homosexuality: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective,” showed that homosexuality was largely biological, rather than a perversion that needed to be cured.

Takuo Aoyagi (1936–2020), pulse oximeter inventor

Takuo Aoyagi was a Japanese engineer who developed technology that made the modern pulse oximeter possible, allowing us to measure the level of oxygen in the blood.

Charlotte Figi (2006–2020), medical cannabis advocate and CBD pioneer

Charlotte Figi was a Colorado girl who helped normalize medical cannabis and CBD as she used it to relieve her Dravet syndrome, a catastrophic form of epilepsy.

William Frankland (1912–2020), founding father of allergy medicine

Dr. William Frankland was a pioneering allergist who popularized pollen count reporting and helped develop the science behind allergy shots.

John F. Murray (1927–2020), top lung disease doctor

John F. Murray  was a doctor who spent his career studying and treating lung disease whose work will be instrumental in fighting COVID-19.  

Bill Jenkins (1945–2019), tried to end Tuskegee syphilis experiment

Bill Jenkins was an epidemiologist and government whistleblower who tried to bring an end to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment by exposing it as racist and unethical. The study began in 1932 when 600 black men, 399 of whom had syphilis, were recruited for a study in exchange for free health care. The study quietly continued for four decades, during which time the men were denied emerging treatments for syphilis and allowed to pass the disease along to their wives and children. When Jenkins joined the Public Health Service in 1967, he learned about the still-ongoing experiment and began working to bring it to the public's attention so it could be stopped. After others got involved in whistleblowing the study's poor methods, a governmental hearing deemed the study problematic and it came to an end in 1972. A subsequent lawsuit brought monetary compensation to the remaining subjects and their survivors, and years later, Jenkins led the effort to get an official apology from President Bill Clinton to the victims of the experiment and their families.

Stewart Adams (1923–2019), inventor of ibuprofen, used himself as test subject

“I always felt it was important to take the first dose.”

John Sulston (1942–2018), scientist helped decode human genome

John Sulston, Nobel Prize-winning British scientist who helped decode the human genome.

Roger Bannister (1929–2018), runner who broke 4-minute mile barrier

Roger Bannister, the British runner who was the first to break the 4-minute mile barrier, died Saturday, March 3, 2018, according to The Associated Press. He was 88.

RIP to 6 Cancer Fighters

These cancer doctors, nurses, and scientists devoted their lives to helping others.

Babatunde Osotimehin (1949 - 2017), United Nations Population Fund director

U.N. Population Fund director fought for girls’, women’s rights...

Thanks, Scientists! (video)

A video tribute to scientists whose work have saved lives.

Peter Mansfield (1933 - 2017), MRI inventor

The British scientist was co-winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize for his work in inventing the revolutionary MRI scanner.

Hans Rosling (1948 - 2017), star of TED Talks

Hans Rosling, a Swedish medical doctor and statistician who made data come alive during worldwide presentations, died Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, in Uppsala, Sweden, according to multiple news sources. He was 68. He died about a year after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Born July 27, 1948, in Uppsala, Sweden, he studied statistics and medicine at Uppsala University in Sweden, and he studied public health in India. After receiving his medical degree, he tracked a rare disease in rural Africa and discovered its cure. In 1993, Rosling co-founded the Swedish branch of the international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, a nongovernmental entity that helps people in war-torn and developing countries.

Henry Heimlich (1920 - 2016), Heimlich maneuver inventor

Henry Heimlich, the physician who was known best for inventing the anti-choking Heimlich maneuver, died Saturday, Dec. 17, 2016, in Cincinnati, Ohio, according to multiple news sources. He was 96.

Denton Cooley (1920 - 2016), pioneer in open heart surgery

Dr. Denton A. Cooley, the surgeon who performed the world's first artificial heart implant, died Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. He was 96.

Dr. Arnold Klein (1945–2015)

Dr. Arnold Klein, dermatologist to the late Michael Jackson and other Hollywood celebrities, has died in Palm Springs, California, according to The Associated Press. He was 70.