Charles-Edward Amory Winslow

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Charles-Edward Amory Winslow (4 February 1877 – 8 January 1957) was an American bacteriologist and public health expert who was, according to the Encyclopedia of Public Health,[1] "a seminal figure in public health, not only in his own country, the United States, but in the wider Western world."

Winslow was born in Boston, Massachusetts and attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), obtaining a B.S. in 1898 and an M.S. in 1910.[2]

He began his career as a bacteriologist. He met Anne Fuller Rogers when they were students in William T. Sedgwick's laboratory at M.I.T., and married her in 1907. He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while heading the sewage experiment station from 1908 to 1910, then taught at the College of the City of New York from 1910 to 1914.

He was the youngest charter member of the Society of American Bacteriologists when that organization was founded in 1899.[3] With Samuel Cate Prescott he published the first American textbook on the element of water bacteriology.

In 1915 he founded the Yale Department of Public Health, and he was professor and chairman of the Department until he retired in 1945.[4] During a time dominated by discoveries in bacteriology, he emphasized a broader perspective on causation, adopting a more holistic perspective. The department under his direction was a catalyst for health reform in Connecticut.[5] He was the first director of Yale's J.B. Pierce Laboratory, serving from 1932 to 1957. The Department of Public Health was a department of the Yale Medical School, and also as the Yale School of Public Health after accreditation was introduced in 1947.[5] Winslow was also instrumental in founding the Yale School of Nursing.

He was the first Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Bacteriology, serving in that position from 1916 to 1944.[2] He was also editor of the American Journal of Public Health from 1944 to 1954.[3] He was curator of public health at the American Museum of Natural History from 1910 to 1922. In 1926 he became president of the American Public Health Association,[3] and in the 1950s was a consultant to the World Health Organization.

[edit] Monographs

Winslow wrote nearly 600 articles and books on bacteriology, public health, sanitation, and health care administration. Among the more significant are:

  • The Evolution and Significance of the Modern Public Health Campaign (1923)
  • The Conquest of Epidemic Disease (1943)
  • The History of American Epidemiology (1952).

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Winslow, Charles-Edward Amory.", Encyclopedia of Public Health, Ed. Lester Breslow, Gale Group, Inc., 2002. eNotes. com. 2006, 24 March 2008 <http://www.enotes.com/publich-health-encyclopedia/winslow-charles-edward-amory>
  2. ^ a b HISCOCK IV (1957). "Charles-Edward Amory Winslow; February 4, 1877-January 8, 1957". J. Bacteriol. 73 (3): 295–6. PMID 13416187. 
  3. ^ a b c "CHARLES-EDWARD AMORY WINSLOW, February 4, 1887-January 8, 1957" (1957). Am J Public Health Nations Health 47 (2): 153–67. PMID 13394766. 
  4. ^ Yale School of Public Health: About the School of Public Health.
  5. ^ a b Yale School of Epidemiology and Public Health. Retrieved on 2008-03-25.