Name Ruth Kirschstein | ||
Died 6 October 2009
Bethesda, Maryland Fields Pathology, Government Administration Alma mater Long Island University
Tulane University School of Medicine Known for Polio vaccine safety research
First woman appointed director of an NIH Institute Notable awards Election to the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, U. S. Public Health Service (PHS) Superior Service Award (1978), the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award (1980), PHS Special Recognition Award (1985), Presidential Distinguished Executive Rank Award (the highest honor for a career civil servant) (1985), and the Women of Achievement Award from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League (2000) | ||
NIGMS Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Predoctoral Institutional Research Training Grant Programs (T32) 2019
Ruth L. Kirschstein, M.D. (12 October 1926 – 6 October 2009) was a pathologist and science administrator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Kirschstein served as director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, deputy director of NIH in the 1990s, and acting director of the NIH in 1993 and 2000-2002.
Contents
- NIGMS Ruth L Kirschstein NRSA Predoctoral Institutional Research Training Grant Programs T32 2019
- Biography
- Family
- Research
- Awards
- References
She was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a member of the Institute of Medicine. In 2002, Congress renamed the NIH graduate student fellowship program to the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award in honor of Dr. Kirschstein's work at the NIH.
Although she had trained as a classical pianist, she pursued medicine, graduating in 1947 from Long Island University and earning a Doctor of Medicine medical degree from Tulane University in 1951. She interned in medicine and surgery at Kings County hospital and completed medical residencies in pathology at Providence Hospital in Detroit, Tulane University Hospital, and the Clinical Center at the NIH.
Biography
Kirschstein was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926. Although she had trained as a classical pianist, she pursued medicine, graduating in 1947 from Long Island University and earning a medical degree from Tulane University in 1951. She interned in medicine and surgery at Kings County hospital and completed medical residencies in pathology at Providence Hospital in Detroit, Tulane University Hospital, and the Clinical Center at the NIH.
Family
She was married for 59 years to Dr. Alan S. Rabson, a pathologist and a deputy director of the National Cancer Institute.
Ruth Kirschstein's only child, Arnold B. Rabson, was born in 1955, the year Al and Ruth arrived at the NIH.
Research
Dr. Kirschstein joined NIH in 1955. She studied clinical pathology, laboratory medicine, virally-induced cancer and tested the safety of measles and polio vaccines following the 1955 Cutter Incident.
In 1972, Dr. Kirschstein became deputy director of the Division of Biologics Standards, a research division that was transferred from NIH to the Food and Drug Administration, where investigated the safety of the artificial sweetener cyclamate. When she returned to the NIH in 1974, Dr. Kirschstein became the first woman to direct an institute when she was appointed the director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Awards
She received honorary degrees from the University of Rochester School of Medicine, Long Island University, Atlanta University, Medical College of Ohio, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Among the awards received by Dr. Kirschstein are the Georgeanna Seegar Jones Women's Health Lifetime Achievement Award, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology's Public Service Award, the American Medical Association's Dr. Nathan Davis Award, the Harvey Wiley FDA Special Citation, Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive (the country's highest civil service honor), the PHS Equal Opportunity Achievement Award, the Alice C. Evans Award, and superior service awards from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and the United States Public Health Service.