Howard Markel (born 1960) is an American medical historian, and a distinguished professor and Director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. He is frequently asked to comment on medical issues in the news.
Contents |
Markel was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1960, and he grew up in the towns of Oak Park and Southfield, Michigan.[1][2] He graduated from Southfield-Lathrup High School, in Lathrup Village, Michigan.[2] He graduated from the University of Michigan with an A.B. in English Literature, summa cum laude in 1982, and an M.D., cum laude, in 1986.[1][2] He had his internship, residency, and a fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1986 to 1991, and also earned his Ph.D. in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology, from Johns Hopkins in 1994.[1][2] He returned to the University of Michigan in 1993, this time as a faculty member,[1] first as an assistant professor, then associate professor, and full professor in 2002.[2] He received a "named chair" in 2000.[2]
He was a scholar in residence at the New York Public Library from 1999 to 2000.[2] He also served as a historical consultant on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning for the United States Department of Defense in 2005 and 2005.[1] Since 2006, he has served as a historical consultant for the United States Department of Health and Human Services's Center on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning.[1]
Markel is currently the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine and Director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, and holds concurrent appointments as a professor in the departments of Psychiatry, Public Health, History and Pediatrics.[1][2]
Markel is an expert in the history of medicine, epidemiology, pediatrics, and the history of epidemics and quarantine.[1][3][4]
Markel is the author, co-author, or co-editor of ten books, including Quarantine!: East European Jewish Immigrants and the New York City Epidemics of 1892,[3] When Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics That Have Invaded America Since 1900 and the Fears They Have Unleashed,[5] and An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine.[6]
He was a columnist for The Journal of the American Medical Association from 2007 through 2011.[1]
Since 2010, Markel has been a regular contributor for National Public Radio’s Science Friday, where his monthly segment, “Science Diction,” discusses the history, evolution and meaning of scientific words. [1]
Markel and his colleagues coined the phrase "protective sequestration" to describe the situation in public health of measures taken to protect a small, defined, and still-healthy population from an epidemic (or pandemic) before the infection reaches that population.[7]
Alexandra Minna Stern and Markel described how the observation that milkmaids lacked the "pockmarked" complexion, common to smallpox survivors, led to the development of the first vaccine by purposeful injection with cowpox.[8]
Markel has written on the history of how endemic goiters were eliminated, specifically through the development by David Murray Cowie of iodized salt.[9] He has written hundreds of other articles, essays, and scholarly papers.[1]