Florence R. Sabin

Florence R. Sabin

Florence R. Sabin
Born November 9, 1871
Central City, Colorado
Died October 3, 1953(1953-10-03) (aged 81)
Denver, Colorado
Nationality American
Fields medicine
Institutions Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Alma mater Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Known for pioneer for women in science
Sabin Health Laws

Florence Rena Sabin (November 9, 1871–October 3, 1953) was an American medical scientist. She was a pioneer for women in science; she was the first woman to hold a full professorship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and the first woman to head a department at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. In her retirement years, she pursued a second career as a public health activist in Colorado, and in 1951 received a Lasker Award for this work.

Biography

Florence Sabin was born in Central City, Colorado, on November 9, 1871. She graduated from Smith College in 1893, attended the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and was the first woman to graduate from that institution. In 1902 she began to teach anatomy at Johns Hopkins. Appointed professor of histology in 1917, she was the first woman to become a full professor at a medical college. In 1924 Sabin was elected the first woman president of the American Association of Anatomists and the first lifetime woman member of the National Academy of Sciences.

In September 1925 she became head of the Department of Cellular Studies at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City. Her research focused on the lymphatic system, blood vessels and cells, and tuberculosis. In 1944 she came out of a six-year retirement to accept Colorado governor John Vivian's request to chair a subcommittee on health. This resulted in the "Sabin Health Laws", which modernized the state's public health system. In 1948 she became manager of health and charities for Denver, donating her salary to medical research. She retired again in 1951 and died on October 3, 1953. She was cremated and her ashes were interred in the Fairmount Mausoleum at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

In 1959, the state of Colorado donated a statue of Sabin to the National Statuary Hall Collection.

In 2005, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine honored Sabin's legacy by naming one of its four colleges after her.

References

  • Wooley, Charles F (August 2005). "Florence Rena Sabin (1871-1953), William Osler (1849-1919) and tuberculosis". Journal of Medical Biography 13 (3): 162–9. PMID 16059529. 
  • Sabin, Florence R (February 2002). "Preliminary note on the differentiation of angioblasts and the method by which they produce blood-vessels, blood-plasma and red blood-cells as seen in the living chick. 1917". J. Hematother. Stem Cell Res. 11 (1): 5–7. doi:10.1089/152581602753448496. PMID 11846999. 
  • Harvey, A M (1976). "A new school of anatomy: the story of Franklin P. Mall, Florence R. Sabin, and John B. MacCallum". Johns Hopkins Med. J. Suppl.: 97–113. PMID 801553. 
  • McGehee Harvey, A (February 1975). "A new school of anatomy: the story of Franklin P. Mall, Florence R. Sabin and John B. MacCallum". The Johns Hopkins medical journal 136 (2): 83–84. PMID 1090771. 
  • "Florence Rena Sabin, "First Lady" Of Colorado". JAMA 186: 1090–1. December 1963. PMID 14065365. 
  • "Florence R. Sabin, M.D". British medical journal 2 (4843): 997–8. October 1953. PMID 13094098. 
  • BASS, E (November 1950). "Florence Rena Sabin, M. D". Journal of the American Medical Women's Association 5 (11): 466–7. PMID 14784430. 

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