Dorothy Horstmann
| Dorothy Millicent Horstmann | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 2, 1911 Spokane, Washington |
| Died | January 11, 2001 (aged 89) New Haven, Connecticut |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley, University of California, San Francisco, Vanderbilt University Hospital |
| Known for | poliovirus |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | virology, epidemiology |
| Institutions | Yale School of Medicine |
Dorothy Millicent Horstmann (July 2, 1911 – January 11, 2001) was an American epidemiologist, virologist and pediatrician whose research on the spread of poliovirus in the human bloodstream helped set the stage for the development of the polio vaccine. She was the first woman appointed as a professor at the Yale School of Medicine.
Horstmann was born on July 2, 1911, in Spokane, Washington and earned her undergraduate degree in 1936 from the University of California, Berkeley. She received her medical training at the University of California, San Francisco, earning her medical degree in 1940 and developed an interest in infectious disease after hearing lectures delivered by Karl Friedrich Meyer while at San Francisco General Hospital, where she performed her internship and residency. She performed further training at Vanderbilt University Hospital.
Horstmann had initially been rejected from the residency program at Vanderbilt as the school's chief of medicine Hugh Morgan would only choose men to participate. Months later she received another letter from Morgan asking whether "Dr. Horstmann" was still interested in the position, having forgotten the original reason for her exclusion. Morgan "all but went into shock" after she accepted the position and showed up for work, but the year ended successfully.
Hired by the Yale School of Medicine in 1942 as a Commonwealth Fellow in the Section of Preventive Medicine, Horstmann specialized in internal medicine under Dr. John R. Paul. She spent 1944 teaching medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, but returned to Yale the following year.
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