Mohammad Gharib

Mohammad Gharib
Dr. Mohammad Gharib
Born	5 July 1909 Tehran, Iran
Died	January 20, 1975(1975-01-20) (aged 65) Tehran, Iran
Occupation	Pediatrician University Professor
Spouse(s)	Zahra Gharib
Children	Hossein, Nahid, Maryam, Mohsen
Parent(s)	Mirza Ali Asghar Gharib (father) Fatemeh Khanom (mother)

Mohammad Gharib (5 July 1909 – 20 January 1975 ) was an Iranian physician, clinician, distinguished university professor and a pioneer of pediatrics in Iran.

Gharib is known as the Father of Pediatrics in Iran. He was a graduate of Paris University Medical School.

Dr. Mohammad Gharib was born in Garakan, Iran, on July 5, 1909.

After completing high school in 1927, he went to Reims, France, where he studied at École de Médecine de Reims for 2 years and then enrolled at the Paris University Medical School. An honor student at the medical school, he passed the difficult examinations for an externship and later those for the coveted and highly competitive interne des hôpitaux de Paris. He received an M.D. degree in 1937 and, after one year of training in pediatrics with Professor Ribadeau-Dumas at Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, he returned home. On his return to Iran, Gharib was appointed the first professor of pediatrics at Tehran University by Dr. Charles Oberling, a French educator who was dean of the medical school. Subsequently, Gharib became chairman of the pediatrics department, a post he held until his death in 1975. In 1941, he was the author of the first Persian textbook on diseases of children. Throughout his career, he edited or co edited numerous volumes on pediatric problems and progress in Iran, and published many articles in Persian, French, and American medical journals. He also maintained a thriving pediatrics practice that usually focused on problem cases.

During a span of 37 years, Gharib taught the medicine of childhood to thousands of undergraduate and graduate students. Many of his pupils subsequently held important positions in Iranian medical education, including the chairmanship of most of the pediatrics departments in the numerous medical schools in Iran. Because of his endeavors and influence, the field was recognized as a specialty in 1950 and a Pediatrics Specialty Board was created in 1955. In 1960, he and his colleagues founded the Iranian Pediatrics Society, of which he was president until 1974. He was a member of the Advisory Board of the International Pediatrics Association from 1968 to 1974. In 1970, he was instrumental in the planning and building of the 150-bed Children's Hospital Medical Center in Tehran, and he served as its medical director from 1971 to 1975.