From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of famous physicians in history:

Contents 1 Physicians famous for their role in advancement of medicine 2 Physicians otherwise notable as practitioners 3 Physicians famous chiefly as eponyms 4 Physicians famous as criminals 5 Physicians famous as writers 6 Physicians famous as politicians 7 Physicians famous for other activities 8 See also

• William Osler Abbott (1902-1943) - co-developed the Miller-Abbott tube
• Thomas Addis (1881–1949) — pioneered urine testing and the study of renal diseases
• Virginia Apgar (1909–1974) — anesthesiologist who devised the Apgar score used after childbirth
• Hans Asperger (1906–1980) — Austrian paediatrician after whom Asperger's Syndrome is named
• Jean Astruc (1684–1766) — wrote one of the first treatises on syphilis
• Averroës (1126–1198)
• Avicenna (980–1037) — Persian physician
• Frederick Banting (1891–1941) — isolated insulin
• Christiaan Barnard (1922–2001) — performed first heart transplant
• Charles Best (1899–1978) — assisted in the discovery of insulin
• Norman Bethune (1890–1939) — developer of battlefield surgical techniques
• Theodor Billroth (1829–1894) — founding father of modern abdominal surgery
• Charaka Indian physician
• Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) — pioneering neurologist
• Charles R. Drew (1904–1950) — blood transfusion pioneer
• Galen (A.D. 129– c. 210) — Roman physician and anatomist
• Garcia de Orta (1501–1568) — revealed herbal medicines of India, described Cholera
• Christiaan Eijkman (1858–1930) — pathologist, studied beriberi
• Pierre Fauchard father of dentistry
• Girolamo Fracastoro (1473–1553) — wrote on syphilis, forerunner of germ theory
• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) — founder of psychoanalysis
• Daniel Carleton Gajdusek (b. 1923) — studied Kuru, Nobel prize winner
• William Harvey (1578–1657) — English physician, described the circulatory system
• Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) — physician and anatomist
• Orvan Hess (1906–2002) — Fetal heart monitor and first successful use of Penicillin
• Hippocrates (c. 460–370 BCE) — Greek father of medicine
• Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad - introduced sodium valproate as a safer alternative to lithium in bipolar disorders
• Edward Jenner (1749–1823) — English physician popularized vaccination
• Carl Jung (1875–1961) — Swiss psychiatrist
• Leo Kanner (1894–1981) — Austrian-American psychiatrist known for work on autism
• Seymour Kety (1915-2000) — influential American neuroscientist
• Tsendiin Khaidaw — reviver and innovator of traditional Mongolian medicine
• Robert Koch (1843–1910) — formulated Koch's postulates
• Theodor Kocher — thyroid surgery and first surgeon to win the Nobel Prize
• Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec (1781–1826) — inventor of the stethoscope
• Janet Lane-Claypon (1877–1967) — pioneer of epidemiology
• Joseph Lister (1827–1912) — pioneer of antiseptic surgery
• Richard Lower (1631–1691) — studied the lungs and heart
• Amato Lusitano (1511–1568) — discovered venous valves, studied blood circulation
• Madhav (8th century A.D.) — medical text author and systematizer
• Maimonides (1135–1204)
• Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694) — Italian anatomist, pioneer in histology
• Otto Fritz Meyerhof (1884–1951) — studied muscle metabolism (Nobel prize)
• George Richards Minot (1885–1950) — Nobel prize for his study of anemia
• Charles Horace Mayo (1865–1939) — co-founder, Mayo Clinic
• William James Mayo (1861–1939) — co-founder, Mayo Clinic
• Richard Morton (1637–1698) — identified tubercles in consumption (phthisis) of lungs; basis for modern name tuberculosis.
• Egas Moniz (1874–1955) — developed Lobotomy and brain artery angiography.
• William Worrall Mayo (1819–1911) — co-founder, Mayo Clinic
• William McBride — discovered teratogenicity of thalidomide
• Herbert Needleman — scientifically established link between lead poisoning and neurological damage; key figure in successful efforts to limit lead exposure
• Charles Jean Henri Nicolle (1866–1936) — microbiologist who won Nobel prize for work on typhus
• William Osler (1849–1919) — called the "Father of Modern Medicine"
• Ralph Paffenbarger — conducted classic studies demonstrating conclusively that active people reduce their risk of heart disease and live longer
• Paracelsus (1493–1541)
• Ambroise Paré (1510–1590) — advanced surgical wound treatment
• Wilder Penfield (1891–1876) — pioneer in neurology
• Joseph Ransohoff (1915–2001) — neurosurgeon who invented the modern technique for removing brain tumors
• Rhazes (A.D. c. 854–925) (Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi)
• Jonas Salk (1914–1995) — developed a vaccine for polio
• Lall Sawh (1951 - ) — Trinidadian Surgeon/Urologist and pioneer of Kidney transplantation in the Caribbean
• Ignaz Semmelweis (1818–1865) — a pioneer of avoiding cross-infection — introduced hand washing and instrument cleaning
• John Snow (1813–1858) — anaesthetist and pioneer epidemiologist who studied cholera
• Susruta (c. 500 BCE) — Indian physician and pioneering surgeon
• Thomas Sydenham (1642–1689) — clinician
• James Mourilyan Tanner (1920– ) — developed Tanner stages and advanced auxology
• Helen B. Taussig (1898-1986) — founded field of pediatric cardiology, worked to prevent thalidomide marketing in the US
• Carlo Urbani (1956–2003) — discovered, and died from, SARS
• Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) — Belgian anatomist, often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy.
• Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902) — German pathologist, founder of fields of comparative pathology, cellular pathology.
• Allen Oldfather Whipple (1881–1963) — devised the Whipple procedure in 1935 for treatment of pancreatic cancer
• Carl Wood in vitro fertilization
• Ole Wormius (1588–1654) — pioneer in embryology
• Sir Magdi Yacoub (1935– ) — One of the leading developers of the techniques of heart and heart-lung transplantation
• Boris Yegorov (1937-1994) Russian - First physician in space, 1964

• Maimonides (1135-1204) - Physician of the Grand Vizier Alfadhil as well as Sultan Saladin of Egypt
• Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917) - first British woman to practice as a doctor
• Emily Barringer (1876–1961) - American, and first female ambulance surgeon and the first woman to secure a surgical residency
• Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) - first woman to practice modern medicine
• Sir Horace Evans - UK royal physician
• Jack Kevorkian (1923- ) - right-to-assisted-death advocate
• Alphonse Laveran (Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran) (1845-1922) - parasitology
• Johann Friedrich Struensee (1737-1772) - royal physician of Christian VII of Denmark
• Paul Rohmer (1876-1977) french physician considered as the father of the modern paediatrics in the east corner of France

• Thomas Addison (1793-1860) - Addison's disease
• Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915) - Alzheimer's disease
• Robert Bárány (1876-1936) - the Bárány chair is used in the study of vertigo
• Charles Édouard Brown-Sequard (1817-1894)
• Albert Calmette (1863-1933)- Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), a vaccine for tuberculosis
• Carlos Chagas (1879-1934) - Chagas disease
• Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) - Maladie de Charcot, Charcot joints, Charcot's triad, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease
• Burrill Bernard Crohn (1884-1983) - Crohn's disease
• Camillo Golgi (1843-1926) - Golgi apparatus
• Louis Hamman (1877-1946) Hamman's sign, Hamman's syndrome Hamman-Rich syndrome
• Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814) - Guillotine
• Charles Mantoux (1877-1947) - Mantoux test for tuberculosis
• Antoine Marfan (1858-1942) - Marfan syndrome
• Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) - Mitchell's disease
• James Paget (1814-1899) - Paget's disease
• James Parkinson (1755-1824) - Parkinson's syndrome
• Cecil Charles Worster-Drought (1888-1971) Worster-Drought syndrome

• Karl Brandt (1904-1948) - Nazi human experimentation
• Baruch Goldstein - assassin
• Radovan Karadžić (b. 1945) - accused of ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia
• Josef Mengele (1911-1979) - known as the Angel of Death, Nazi human experimentation
• Samuel Mudd - condemned to prison for setting the leg of Abraham Lincoln's assassin
• Herta Oberheuser (1911-1978) - Nazi human experimentation
• Jack Kevorkian (1923- ) - convicted of second-degree murder, Michigan, April 13, 1999
• Shiro Ishii - headed Japan's Unit 731 during WWII which conducted human experimentation for weapons and medical research
• Harold Shipman (1946-2004)- British mass murderer
• Richard J. Schmidt - American physician who contaminated his girlfriend with AIDS-tainted blood

see also A Roster of Physician Writers

Among the better known writers:

• Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) - Russian playwright
• Robin Cook - American author of bestselling novels, wrote Coma
• Michael Crichton (born 1942) - American author of Jurassic Park.
• A. J. Cronin (1896-1981) - Scottish novelist and essayist, author of The Citadel.
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) - British author of Sherlock Holmes fame.
• John Keats (1795-1821) - English poet
• W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) - British novelist and short story writer, wrote Of Human Bondage.
• Alfred de Musset (1810-1857) - French playwright, discovered sign of syphilitic aortitis
• François Rabelais (1483-1553) - French author of Gargantua and Pantagruel.
• Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805), German writer, poet, essayist and dramatist.
• William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) - American poet and essayist

And others:

• John Arbuthnot - author
• Patrick Abercromby (1656 - ~ 1716) - historian
• Janet Asimov - (born 1926) (née Janet O. Jeppson). American psychiatrist, wife of Isaac Asimov.
• Arnie Baker - cycling coach
• Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) - British writer
• Georg Büchner - German dramatist
• Ludwig Büchner - German philosopher
• Thomas Campion - poet, composer
• Deepak Chopra - Indian/American writer of self-help and health books
• Alex Comfort (1920-2000) - British writer and poet, author of The Joy of Sex.
• Michael Cook - American writer of suspense novels
• Ctesias (5th century B.C.) - Greek historian
• Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802). British poet, grandfather of Charles Darwin
• Georges Duhamel (1884-1966) - French writer, dramatist, poet and humanist
• Havelock Ellis (1859-1940) - British writer and poet, author of The Psychology of Sex
• Victor Frankl (1905-1997) - Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, author of Man's Search for Meaning
• Samuel Garth (1661-1719) - British author and translator of classics
• William Gilbert
• Oliver Goldsmith - American author
• Atul Gawande, surgeon and New Yorker medical writer.
• H. Richard Hornberger author of M*A*S*H
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) - American essayist
• Arthur Johnston (1587-1641) - poet
• Ronald Laing - Scottish writer and poet, leader of the anti-psychiatry movement.
• Stanisław Lem (1929-) - Polish author of science-fiction (Solaris)
• Carlo Levi (1902-1975) - Italian novelist and writer
• David Livingstone (1813-1873) - Scottish medical missionary, explorer of Africa, travel writer
• Adeline Yen Mah - Chinese-American author.
• Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) - French writer, a leader of French Revolution, assassinated in bathtub
• Paolo Mantegazza (1831-1910) - Italian writer, wrote a science fiction book, L'Anno 3000
• Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) - American writer
• Mungo Park
• João Guimarães Rosa - Brazilian writer
• Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932) - British writer and poet, discovered the malarial parasite.
• Theodore Isaac Rubin (1923-). American author of Lisa and David.
• Oliver Sacks (1933-). British essayist (e.g. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat)
• Albert Schweitzer(1875-1965) - German theologian, philosopher, organist, musicologist
• Frank Slaughter (1908-2001) American bestseller author, wrote (Doctor's Wives)
• Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) - author
• Benjamin Spock (1903-1988) - American pediatrician, wrote Baby and Child Care.
• Lewis Thomas (1913-1993) - American essayist and poet
• Sir Henry Thompson, British surgeon and polymath.
• Vladislav Vančura (1891-1942) - Czech writer, scriptwriter and film director
• Francis Brett Young (1884-1954) - English novelist and poet

• Bashar Al-Assad - President of Syria
• Ibrahim Al-Jaafari - Prime minister of Iraq
• Iyad Allawi - interim Prime Minister of Iraq
• Salvador Allende (1908-1973) - Chilean president
• Emilio Alvarez Montalván - Foreign Minister of Nicaragua
• Arnulfo Arias - Panaman President
• Michelle Bachelet - Current Chilean President
• Hastings Kamuzu Banda (1898-1997) - Prime Minister, President and later dictator of Malawi
• Louis Blanqui - French revolutionary socialist
• Frederick William Borden - Canadian MP and minister of the Militia
• Bob Brown - parliamentry leader of the Australian Greens
• Gro Harlem Brundtland (born 1939) - first Norwegian female prime minister and Director-General of the World Health Organization
• Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) - French statesman
• Margaret Chan - Director General of the WHO and former Director of Health of Hong Kong
• York Chow - Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food of Hong Kong
• Tom Coburn (born 1948) - U.S. Senator
• Howard Dean (born 1948) - American politician
• François Duvalier (1907-1971) - also known as Papa Doc - President and later dictator of Haiti
• Antônio Palocci Filho - Brazilian politician, Finance Minister
• Christian Friedrich, Baron von Stockmar - Anglo-Belgian statesman
• Bill Frist (born 1952) - United States Senate Majority Leader
• Hedy Fry (born 1941) - Canadian politician, member of parliament
• Che Guevara Latin American revolutionary leader
• George Habash - founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
• John Pope Hennessy - former Governor of Hong Kong
• Grant Hill (politician) - former Canadian MP
• Wilbert Keon - Canadian senator
• Mohammad Reza Khatami - Iranian politician
• Juscelino Kubitscheck - Brazilian president
• Jean-Paul Marat - French revolution leader
• Keith Martin - Portuguese Canadian MP
• William McGuigan - mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia
• Mahathir bin Mohamad - Malaysian prime minister
• Brendon Nelson - Australian politician
• Agostinho Neto (1922-1979) - MPLA leader and president of Angola
• David Owen - British politician
• Ron Paul (born 1935) - American politician
• Andrew Refshauge - Australian politician
• Navin Ramgoolam - Prime minister of Mauritius
• José Rizal (1861-1896) - Filipino revolutionary and national hero
• Théodore Robitaille - Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, Quebec MNA and Senator
• Bidhan Chandra Roy - Indian politician
• Hélio de Oliveira Santos - Brazilian politician, mayor of Campinas
• Tabaré Vázquez - Current Uruguayan President
• Bette Stephenson - Ontario MPP and former Minister of Labour, Minister of Education and Minister of Colleges and Universities
• Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925) - Founder of republican China
• Donald Matheson Sutherland - MP and former minister of National Defence
• Sir Charles Tupper (1821–1915) - Prime Minister of Canada (1896) and Premier of Nova Scotia (1864-1867); High Commissioner in Great Britain (1884-1887)
• Ali Akbar Velayati (born 1945) - Iranian Foreign Minister from 1981 to 1997.
• William Walker (soldier) (1824-1860) - ruler of Nicaragua
• Dave Weldon - US congressman and autism activist
• Ray Lyman Wilbur (1875-1949) - United States Secretary of the Interior, president of Stanford University
• Thomas Wynne (1627-1691) - Physician to William Penn, speaker of the first two Provincial Assemblies in Philadelphia (1687 & 1688)
• Yeoh Eng-kiong - former Secretary for Health and Welfare of Hong Kong

• Abd-el-latif — traveller
• Anderson Ruffin Abbott
• Jane Addams - social activist
• Georg Agricola — mineralologist
• David Alter inventor
• Oswald Avery (1877–1955) — molecular biologist who discovered DNA carried genetic information
• Ali Bacher — cricketer
• Josiah Bartlett - American statesman and chief justice of New Hampshire
• T. Romeyn Beck (1791–1855) — American forensic medicine pioneer
• Maximilian Bircher-Benner (1867–1939) — nutritionist
• Herman Boerhaave — humanist
• Thomas Bowdler — censor
• Shahrul Ezam Borhan — College of Public Care Medicine of Malaysia [1]
• Lafayette Bunnell — explorer of Yosemite Valley
• Gerolamo Cardano
• John Caius (1510–1573) — physician and educator
• Graham Chapman — British comedian of Monty Python fame
• Laurel B. Clark (1961–2003), American Astronaut, killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
• Arthur Dee
• Sextus Empiricus (2nd–3rd century C.E.) - philosopher
• Gordon S. Fahrni
• Niels Ryberg Finsen
• Luigi Galvani — physicist
• Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) — philosopher
• William Gilbert (1544–1603) — physician and physicist
• W. G. Grace — cricketer
• Nehemiah Grew — botanist
• Samuel Hahnemann — founder of homeopathy
• John Hall (d. 1635) — son-in-law of William Shakespeare
• Armand Hammer — entrepreneur
• Samuel Gridley Howe — abolitionist
• Hermann von Helmholtz — physicist
• Jan Baptist van Helmont (1577–1655) — physiologist
• Mae Jemison (b. 1956) — astronaut
• Stuart Kauffman (b. 1939) — biologist
• John Harvey Kellogg
• Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909) — based his system of criminology on physiognomy
• John Lovelock (1910–1949) — Olympic athlete
• John McAndrew (b. 1927) — All-Ireland Gaelic Footballer
• June McCarroll — inventor of lane markings
• James McHenry (1753–1816) — signer of the United States Constitution
• Archibald Menzies — naturalist
• Franz Mesmer (1734–1815) — proponent of mesmerism and the idea of animal magnetism
• Jonathan Miller — television presenter and stage director
• Paul Möhring (1710–1792) — zoologist, botanist
• Maria Montessori — educator
• Boris V. Morukov — cosmonaut
• Lee "Final Table" Nelson — professional poker player
• Haing S. Ngor (Oscar winning film actor)
• Nostradamus — French esoterist.
• Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers (1758–1840) — astronomer
• Caspar Peucer
• Christian Hendrik Persoon -South African botanist
• Claude Perrault — architect
• Philippe Pinel
• Pope John XXI
• Mowaffak al-Rubaie — human rights advocate, member of the Interim Iraqi Governing Council
• John Ray plant taxonomer
• Peter Mark Roget — English lexicographer
• Jacques Rogge — sports official
• Benjamin Rush — signer of the United States Constitution
• Daniel Rutherford (1849–1819) — chemist
• Felix Savart - physicist
• Alfred Schopenhauer — philosopher
• Albert Schweitzer — humanist
• Michael Servetus (1511–1553) — burnt at the stake by Calvinists for heresy
• Rob Sitch comedian
• Sócrates — football (soccer) player
• L.Subramaniam violonist
• James Hudson Taylor (1832 - 1905) - British missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission.
• Norman Earl Thagard — astronaut
• Debi Thomas (b. 1967) - Olympic figure skater
• William E. Thornton — astronaut
• Nasiruddin al-Tusi astronomer
• William Walker Latin American Adventurer
• Andrew Wakefield conducted studies on disputed link between vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders, which had many serious consequences
• John Clarence Webster — Canadian historian
• Wilhelm Weinberg — with G.H. Hardy, developed the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium model of population genetics
• JPR Williams — rugby union player
• Thomas Young — scientist
• Ayman al-Zawahiri Al-Qaeda leader

• List of fictional physicians
• List of psychiatrists
• Famous figures in psychiatry
• Fictional psychiatrists