List of physicians

This is a list of famous physicians in history:

Physicians famous for their role in advancement of medicine

• Guy de Chauliac (1290-1368) - One of the first physicians to have an experimental approach towards medicine. He also recorded the Black Death
• William Osler Abbott (1902–1943) - co-developed the Miller-Abbott tube
• 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
• William Stewart Agras, feeding behavior
• 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
• Alfred Blalock (1899–1964) — most noted for his research on the medical condition of Shock and the development of the Blalock-Taussig Shunt, surgical relief of the cyanosis from Tetralogy of Fallot—known commonly as the blue baby syndrome—with his assistant Vivien Thomas and pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig.
• Charaka Indian physician
• Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) — pioneering neurologist
• Jerome Conn (1907-1981) - University of Michigan Endocrinologist who discovered aldosterone and defined its role as a hormonal regulator of salt excretion
• Noor-ud-Din (1841-1914) He was Khalifatul Masih I, Head of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.He was a famous Royal physician, writer and theologian.
• Charles R. Drew (1904–1950) — blood transfusion pioneer
• Helen Flanders Dunbar (1902–1959) important early figure in U.S. psychosomatic medicine.
• Galen (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 (1478–1553) — wrote on syphilis, forerunner of germ theory
• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) — founder of psychoanalysis
• Daniel Carleton Gajdusek (born 1923) — studied Kuru, Nobel prize winner
• William Harvey (1578–1657) — English physician, described the circulatory system
• Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) — physician and anatomist
• Henry Heimlich (born 1920) — inventor of the Heimlich Maneuver and the Vietnam War era Chest Drain Valve
• Orvan Hess (1906–2002) — Fetal heart monitor and first successful use of Penicillin
• Hippocrates (c. 460–370 BCE) — Greek father of medicine
• Elliott P. Joslin (1869-1962) — pioneer in the treatment of diabetes
• 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
• 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, and performed the first blood transfusion
• 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
• William Worrall Mayo (1819–1911) — co-founder, Mayo Clinic
• Frederic E. Mohs (1910-2002)- responsible for the method of surgery now called Mohs surgery
• 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 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
• Gary Onik - inventor and pioneer of ultrasound guided cryosurgery for both the prostate and the liver
• 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 (1891–1976) — pioneer in neurology
• Joseph Ransohoff (1915–2001) — neurosurgeon who invented the modern technique for removing brain tumors
• Rhazes (c. 854 – 925) (Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi)
• Jonas Salk (1914–1995) — developed a vaccine for polio
• Lall Sawh (born 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 (born 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.
• Vidus Vidius (1508–1569) First professor of Medicine at the College Royal and author of medical texts.
• 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
• Priscilla White — developed classification of diabetes mellitus and pregnancy to assess and reduce the risk of miscarriage, birth defect, stillbirth, and maternal death
• Carl Wood in vitro fertilization
• Ole Wormius (1588–1654) — pioneer in embryology
• Sir Magdi Yacoub (born 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

Physicians famous chiefly as eponyms

See also Medical eponyms

Among the better known eponyms:

• Thomas Addison (1793–1860) - Addison's disease
• Alois Alzheimer (1864–1915) - Alzheimer's disease
• 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
• Jerome Conn (1907 - 1981) - Conn's Syndrome (primary hyperaldosteronism)
• Burrill Bernard Crohn (1884–1983) - Crohn's disease
• Camillo Golgi (1843–1926) - Golgi apparatus
• 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
• Hans Asperger - Asperger syndrome
• Karl Adolph von Basedow - Basedow disease
• Paul Broca - Broca's area
• David Bruce - Brucellosis
• Denis Parsons Burkitt - Burkitt lymphoma
• Harvey Cushing - Cushing's disease
• John Langdon Down - Down syndrome
• Bartolomeo Eustachi - Eustachian tube
• Gabriele Falloppio - Fallopian tube
• Ernst Gräfenberg - Gräfenberg spot (G-spot)
• Gerhard Armauer Hansen - Hansen's disease
• Thomas Hodgkin - Hodgkin's disease
• George Huntington - Huntington's disease
• Moritz Kaposi - Kaposi sarcoma
• Daniel Elmer Salmon - Salmonella
• Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette - Tourette syndrome
• Gunner Stickler - Stickler syndrome
• Hulusi Behçet - Behçet's disease

Physicians famous as criminals

• Dr John Bodkin Adams - suspected British serial killer, thought to have killed over 160 patients. Acquitted of one murder in 1957 but convicted of prescription fraud, not keeping a dangerous drug register, obstructing a police search and lying on cremation forms.
• Karl Brandt (1904–1948) - Nazi human experimentation
• Dr Edme Castaing - murderer
• George Chapman - Polish poisoner and Jack the Ripper suspect
• Dr Robert George Clements - murderer
• Dr Nigel Cox - only British doctor to be convicted of attempted euthanasia
• Dr Thomas Neill Cream - murderer
• Baruch Goldstein (1956–1994) - assassin
• Linda Hazzard - convicted of murdering one patient but suspected of 12 in total
• Dr H.H. Holmes - American serial killer
• Shiro Ishii - headed Japan's Unit 731 during World War II which conducted human experimentation for weapons and medical research
• Radovan Karadžić (born 1945) - accused of ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia
• Jack Kevorkian (born 1923) - convicted of second-degree murder, Michigan, April 13, 1999
• Dr Jeffrey MacDonald
• Josef Mengele (1911–1979) - known as the Angel of Death, Nazi human experimentation
• Samuel Mudd (1833–1883) - condemned to prison for setting the leg of Abraham Lincoln's assassin
• Herman Webster Mudgett (1860–1896) - American serial killer
• Arnfinn Nesset - Norwegian serial killer
• Dr William Palmer - British poisoner
• Dr Marcel Petiot - French serial killer
• Herta Oberheuser (1911–1978) - Nazi human experimentation
• Richard J. Schmidt - American physician who contaminated his girlfriend with AIDS-tainted blood
• Harold Shipman (1946–2004) - British serial killer
• Michael Swango (born 1953) - American serial killer

Physicians famous as writers

see also A Roster of Physician Writers

Among the better known writers:

• Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) - Russian novelist and playwright
• Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) - Russian playwright
• Khaled Hosseini (1965-) - American author, originally from Afghanistan, of hugely popular bestselling novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns
• Robin Cook - American author of bestselling novels, wrote Coma
• Michael Crichton (1942–2008) - 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
• Walker Percy (1916-1990)- American philosopher and writer

And others:

• John Arbuthnot - author
• Patrick Abercromby (1656 – c. 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 - British 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
• Dimitris P. Kraniotis - Greek poet
• Ronald Laing - Scottish writer and poet, leader of the anti-psychiatry movement.
• Stanisław Lem (1929-2006) - 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 (born 1923). American author of Lisa and David.
• Oliver Sacks (born 1933). British essayist (e.g. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat)
• Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) - German charitative worker, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1952), 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.
• Osamu Tezuka - Japanese Cartoonist and Animator. Considered the "father of anime".
• Lewis Thomas (1913–1993) - American essayist and poet
• Sir Henry Thompson, British surgeon and polymath.
• Vladislav Vančura (1891–1942) - Czech writer, screenwriter and film director
• Francis Brett Young (1884–1954) - English novelist and poet

Physicians famous as politicians

• 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
• Chen Chi-mai - former mayor of Kaohsiung, Taiwan
• 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 - 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
• Maxime Ferrari - Minister for Development Seychelles
• 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 (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
• Dr. Y. S. Rajashekar Reddy (born 1948)-Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh State, India(2004).

Physicians famous for other activities

• Noor-ud-Din (1841-1914)He was Khalifatul Masih I, Head of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.He was a famous Royal physician, writer and theologian.
• Abd-el-latif — traveller
• Anderson Ruffin Abbott
• Keith Ablow — television psychiatrist
• 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
• Alexander Borodin — composer
• Thomas Bowdler — censor
• Shahrul Ezam Borhan — College of Public Care Medicine of Malaysia [1]
• Lafayette Bunnell — explorer of Yosemite Valley
• Gerolamo Cardano
• Ben Carson — Prominent African American Neurosurgeon
• 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 (1887-1995) — Order of Canada and President of the Canadian Medical Association from 1941-1942
• 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 (died 1635) — son-in-law of William Shakespeare
• Armand Hammer — entrepreneur
• Harry Hill — comedian
• Samuel Gridley Howe — abolitionist
• Hermann von Helmholtz — physicist
• Jan Baptist van Helmont (1577–1655) — physiologist
• Mae Jemison (born 1956) — astronaut
• Nikolay Katev (born 1956) travelling surgeon
• Stuart Kauffman (born 1939) — biologist
• John Harvey Kellogg
• Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909) — based his system of criminology on physiognomy
• John Lovelock (1910–1949) — Olympic athlete
• John McAndrew (born 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
• 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
• Doreen Rosenstrauch — artist, athlete, humanist, scientist
• Benjamin Rush — signer of the United States Constitution
• Daniel Rutherford (1749–1819) — 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 (born 1954, Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira) — Brazilian football (soccer) player
• L.Subramaniam — violinist
• James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) — British missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission
• Norman Earl Thagard — astronaut
• Debi Thomas (born 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
• Michael Welner — Forensic psychiatrist
• JPR Williams — rugby union player
• Thomas Young — scientist
• Ayman al-Zawahiri — Al-Qaeda leader
• Ayman B Ibrahim — Physician Scientist; UCLA Fellow Biostatistics, a Reciter. Developed with UCLA liver team a survival model that predicts survival post-transplant in liver transplant patients using MELD Score.

See also

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