Mark M. Ravitch, M.D. Endowed Professorship in Surgery
MARK M. RAVITCH, Med 1934, one of the founding fathers of modern pediatric surgery, recalled that as a young college graduate he was disappointed when his application to Harvard Medical School was rejected. He later realized that the decision was “the greatest good fortune that could have come to me.” After earning his medical degree at Hopkins, Dr. Ravitch completed a surgical residency with the renowned Alfred Blalock.
A prolific writer, Dr. Ravitch authored 453 papers, 101 book chapters, 22 books, and served as editor of nearly 20 medical journals. Dr. Ravitch was perhaps best known as an expert on the correction of chest-wall deformities in children and as a pioneer in the use of mechanical suturing in surgery. He is also remembered for his incisive mind, his intellectual integrity, and his demanding yet compassionate Socratic approach to teaching. In 1989, at the age of 78, Dr. Ravitch was still teaching students from his hospital bed. He died that year.
Chairholder to be named.
Alfred Blalock Chair in Surgery
As a teenager, ALFRED BLALOCK, Med 1922, decided that he wanted to attend the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins, where his father had been a patient. After earning a Hopkins medical degree, he trained at Vanderbilt University and then served on its full-time faculty. Dr. Blalock joined the Hopkins faculty in 1941 and went on to become one of the most highly renowned and honored surgeons of his day.
He is best known for his work on shock and for developing, with Helen Taussig and Vivien Thomas, the operation for the Tetralogy of Fallot–known as the “blue-baby operation”–a procedure that palliates a congenital malformation of the heart. In 1953, Dr. Blalock was honored with the American Medical Association’s Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding work in surgery. He died in 1964.
William H. Welch Professorship in the History of Medicine
WILLIAM H. WELCH, appointed by President Daniel Coit Gilman in 1884, was the first full-time member of the medical faculty. Along with John Shaw Billings, Dr. Welch assembled the nucleus of the faculty and was a major architect of the new hospital’s structure and practice. For 37 years, Dr. Welch chaired the advisory board of the medical faculty. Founder of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Dr. Welch was instrumental in bringing a scientific approach into medicine in the United States, creating at Hopkins a model that endures today. Dr. Welch developed Hopkins’ first pathological laboratory and served as first pathologist-in-chief and first professor of pathology. He was also the first dean of the medical faculty, founder and first director of the School of Hygiene and Public Health, planner for the library that bears his name at the School of Medicine, and founder and first director of the Institute of the History of Medicine, about which he said, “I have a high conception of what a department of the history of medicine could be made–not merely a cultural centre, important as that is, but a real adjuvant of the department of scientific medicine.” Throughout his long tenure, Dr. Welch played a pivotal role in integrating what are today known as the Johns Hopkins medical institutions–the hospital and the schools of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing. He died in 1934 at the age of 84.
Edwin O. Reischauer Chair in East Asian Studies
EDWIN OLDFATHER REISCHAUER was United States ambassador to Japan from 1961 to 1966. In 1984, when the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies was dedicated at SAIS, its director, George Packard, called Dr. Reischauer “quite simply the preeminent scholar, diplomat, and statesman of our time.” An East Asia scholar, he died in 1990 at the age of 80.
SOHEI NAKAYAMA, former chairman of the board of the Industrial Bank of Japan and founding chairman of the International University of Japan, took the lead in establishing this professorship. Mr. Nakayama received an honorary degree from Johns Hopkins in 1988. He died in 2005 at the age of 99.
Charles Cummings Professorship in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
CHARLES W. CUMMINGS was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in November of 1935. He graduated from Deerfield Academy in 1953, Dartmouth College in 1957, and the University of Virginia Medical School in 1961. He was an intern at Dartmouth and completed a year of general surgery residency at the University of Virginia. He entered the Air Force in 1963, was discharged in July 1965, and entered residency training in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Harvard Medical School Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, finishing the program in 1968. Dr. Cummings was in private practice in Boston and on the clinical staff at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary until the end of 1975 when he moved to Syracuse, New York, and became an associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University. Two years later, on January 1, 1978, he assumed chairmanship of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Washington where he remained until the end of 1990 when he became director of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Johns Hopkins. In 2003, Dr. Cummings stepped down as director. He is a Distinguished Service Professor at Johns Hopkins and continues to care for patients. Dr. Cummings is also the senior medical director for Johns Hopkins International. He has written over 144 scientific papers and is the founding editor of the four volume text Cummings Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, which is in its sixth edition. He has also co-authored two surgical atlases, one on laryngeal surgery and another on surgical access and reconstruction in the field of laryngology and head and neck surgery. Dr. Cummings served as a director of the American Board of Otolaryngology, as chairman of the Residency Review Committee and chairman of the Advisory Council for Otolaryngology to the American College of Surgeons. He was chief of staff of The Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1997 through 1999 and serves on the board of directors of Johns Hopkins Medicine. He is a past president of the American Association for Academic Departments of Otolaryngology, American Broncho-Esophagological Association, the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the American Society for Head and Neck Surgery. He is married to Jane Drake Cummings and has three children and eight grandchildren.
Robert A. Robinson Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery
ROBERT A. ROBINSON, former director of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, was an authority on total hip joint replacement and one of the developers of an operation that alleviated much of the pain associated with the removal of cervical discs. He came to Hopkins in 1953 and was the first member of the orthopaedics faculty to be named a distinguished service professor. Dr. Robinson, who died in 1990, has been praised by his colleagues as a “scientific surgeon” who trained a generation of physicians who became leaders in orthopaedic surgery. Dr. Robinson said that his greatest satisfaction was in “seeing somebody able to do something he could not do before, as, for instance, to walk without pain.” The professorship is held by the chairman of the department.
Lee H. Riley Jr., M.D., Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery
LEE H. RILEY JR, who died in 2001, was a Hopkins Distinguished Service Professor, professor of orthopaedic surgery and served as chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. He wrote extensively on the anterior approach to the cervical spine and was one of the first surgeons in the United States to perform total hip anthroplasty. He was also involved in the design and development of the first total knee replacement done in this country. Dr. Riley was a founding member and former president of both the Cervical Spine Research Society and the Knee Society, and was a member of numerous other societies, including the Hip Society, the Orthopaedic Research Society, and the American Orthopaedic Association.
A member of the Nursing School Council, Dr. Riley chaired the Johns Hopkins Medical Board, the Physician Advisors Committee, and the Medical School Council. Over his long career at Hopkins, Dr. Riley served as mentor and counselor to generations of students, resident trainees, and colleagues and was a caring physician and surgeon to countless patients.
Thomas M. Brushart, M.D. Professorship in Hand Surgery
THOMAS M. BRUSHART, M.D., was the inaugural Thomas M. Brushart, M.D. Professor in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Division of Hand Surgery. He has gained wide recognition for his expertise in the treatment of hand and peripheral nerve problems, as well as for his research into the restoration of function after nerve injury. Dr. Brushart and his colleagues have focused on techniques of stimulating nerve fibers to regenerate after injury, reconnecting properly with muscle and skin. He has received numerous honors, including the Milton Fellowship at Harvard, where he earned undergraduate and medical degrees; the Bunnell Traveling Fellowship of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand; and the L.W. Freeman Award of the Spinal Cord Injury Foundation.
Anna D. Wolf Professorship
ANNA D. WOLF, Nurs 1915, who directed the nursing school from 1940 until 1955, was a trailblazer not only at Hopkins but around the world. She organized the School of Nursing at the Peking Union Medical College in China, laid the foundation for the baccalaureate nursing program at Cornell University, and organized the all-graduate nursing service at the University of Chicago. In 1940 she returned to Hopkins to serve as superintendent. Ms. Wolf, who died in 1985, is remembered most for her commitment to the advancement of nursing education based on a belief in the importance of nursing as a great human service.
Donlin M. Long, M.D. Professorship in Neurosurgery
DONLIN M. LONG served as director of the Department of Neurosurgery from 1973 through 2000, when he stepped down to devote all his time to research, education, and patient care. He holds a joint appointment at the Applied Physics Laboratory and is a founder of the Laboratory for Technology Transfer.
Dr. Long, who also holds a PhD in neuroanatomy, focuses his treatment and research on tumors of the skull, complex spinal problems, and problems of chronic pain. As director, he led his department to become one of the best of its kind, responsible for major contributions to the understanding of brain systems, brain tumor therapy, and pain treatment. Twenty-three of his trainees have gone on to head neurosurgery departments or divisions in hospitals and medical schools all over the world. In 2001, Dr. Long was appointed a Distinguished Service Professor.
Water E. Dandy, M.D. Professorship in Neurosurgery
WALTER E. DANDY, MD, is recognized as one of Johns Hopkins renowned visionaries. His professional career began at Johns Hopkins in 1910 and spanned nearly forty years until his death in 1946. During his tenure he performed operations on brain tumors, cranial nerve lesions and injuries, vascular lesions in the brain as well as surgery for spinal cord tumors and ruptured intervertebral discs.
Dr. Dandy was a pioneer in the development of neurosurgery. His work encompassed both basic and clinical investigation in neurosurgery and neurology as well as critical care neuroradiology. Dr. Dandy’s genius led him to discover new surgical treatments that continue to be used today. The magnitude of Walter E. Dandy’s contributions to the field of neurosurgery is felt every day at Johns Hopkins and throughout the world. In 1923, Dr. Dandy created a 24-hour specialized nursing unit for critically ill neurosurgical patients–it is considered the forerunner of present-day intensive care units.
Dr. Dandy’s name and his achievements are so closely associated with Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Department of Neurosurgery that establishing the Walter E. Dandy Professorship is the most fitting way to honor his legacy and to ensure that future generations of neurosurgeons benefit and learn from his example.
Henry Brem Professorship in Neurosurgery
Established in 2014 by lead donors Dr. and Mrs. IRVING SHERMAN and Mr. and Mrs. JOSH E. FIDLER and generous gifts from Mr. and Mrs. LEONARD ATTMAN, Mr. and Mrs. GEORGE BERRY, Drs. HENRY and RACHEL BREM, Dr. and Mrs. BENJAMIN S. CARSON SR., Drs. PETER and JANE COLEMAN, Mr. and Mrs. HARVEY M. MEYERHOFF, Mr. and Mrs. GEORGE PASTER, Mrs. BABETTE ROSENBERG, Mr. BRUCE ROSENBERG, the SIEGEL RINGLER FAMILY, and Mr. and Mrs. BARRY WESSLER.
HENRY BREM, the Harvey Cushing Professor and Director of the Department of Neurosurgery, joined the faculty in 1984 and has built one of the largest brain tumor research and treatment centers in the world. He reinstituted Hopkins’ Hunterian Neurosurgery Research Laboratory, originally founded by Hopkins’ first neurosurgeon, Harvey Cushing, with a new focus on medical and surgical therapies for brain tumors. Dr. Brem has changed the surgical treatment of brain tumors by introducing new approaches for targeted therapy. His work in developing a polymer wafer for direct delivery of chemotherapy into the brains of patients with brain tumors led to the first FDA approval of a brain tumor treatment, Gliadel ®, in 23 years. As a teacher and mentor, Dr. Brem has trained numerous researchers. His trainees currently lead 11 different brain tumor centers around the world. His inspiring teaching was recognized in 1996 when he received the Hopkins Professors’ Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 1998, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2000 he was awarded the Grass Award by the Society of Neurological Surgeons for meritorious research. In 2001, he received the Founders Award of the Controlled Release Society; in 2004 he received the New York University Distinguished Alumni Award and was named the Coleman Fellow in Life Sciences at Ben-Gurion University. In 2011, he delivered the commencement address for the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has been recognized by the Castle Connolly Guide each year in “America’s Top Doctors,” and in “America’s Top Doctors for Cancer.” In 2013, the Society for NeuroOncology and the Section on Tumors of the AANS/CNS named him as the recipient of the Abhijit Guha Award.
The Professorship is held by Henry Brem and will be used to further advance brain tumor research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.