The pursuit of excellence requires a learning organization grounded in leadership, innovation, and compassionate care that can translate new knowledge into better human health. These attributes are interwoven by professionalism dedicated to teamwork, collegiality, and social and intellectual diversity. Such values promote the best interests of medicine and further strengthen our social contract with the community we serve.
The Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Biomedical Research Center provides critical space for scientists working in the areas of cancer, heart disease, neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimers, diabetes, epigenetics and genomics.
In 1859, Nathan Smith Davis co-founded the medical department of Lind University, which later became the Chicago Medical College and eventually the Northwestern University school of medicine. He served as a university trustee until the time of his death. He was instrumental in the founding of the American Medical Association and was one of the founders of the Chicago Medical Society, the Chicago Historical Society, the Chicago Academy of the Sciences and the Union College of Law, which eventually became the Northwestern University school of law.
Chad A. Mirkin, PhD, director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology, the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry and professor of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine, is a world-renowned nanoscience expert. He is known for the development of nanoparticle-based biodetection schemes, the invention of Dip-Pen Nanolithography and contributions to supramolecular chemistry, nanoelectronics and nano-optics. He is the author of more than 440 manuscripts and over 400 patents and applications and is the founder of three nanotechnology companies. He holds membership in the National Academies of Science, Engineering, Inventors and Medicine.
Daniel Hale Williams, MD, was the schools first Black graduate and faculty member, the first Black fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the principal founder of the National Medical Association. Williams founded Provident Hospital in Chicago, the first Black-owned and -operated interracial hospital in the country in 1891. He performed one of the worlds first successful heart operations in 1893, and President Grover Cleveland appointed him surgeon-in-chief at Freedmans Hospital, Washington, D.C., in 1894.
Milan Mrksich, PhD, a professor in the Department of Cell & Developmental Biology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and the Department of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, is considered a world leader in engineering the interface between cells and surfaces. Among his many honors, Mrksich is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
Sandra Olson, MD '63, GME '69, was the first woman president of the American Academy of Neurology, as well as the first female leader of the Illinois State Medical Society, the Chicago Medical Society and the Chicago Neurological Society. She graduated from Northwestern Medical School and completed her residency here, before joining Northwestern Memorial Hospital as an attending physician and instructor for the medical school. She was eventually appointed the first woman chief-of-staff at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Mary Thompson, MD, was the first female surgeon in the United States and, in 1870, was Northwestern Medical School's first female medical graduate. She founded the Women's Medical College, the first medical school for women in the Midwest; the Chicago Hospital for Women and Children, the first hospital staffed by female physicians; and helped found Chicagos first nursing school. She also developed a number of surgical instruments and procedures.
Robert Furchgott, PhD 40, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1998, which he shared with Louis J. Ignarro and Ferid Murad for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule. Furchgotts discoveries have helped scientists understand and find new treatments for cardiovascular diseases and other conditions ranging from immune disorders to memory loss, pulmonary disease and erectile dysfunction.
Thomas E. Starzl, MD '52, PhD '52, and faculty member at Northwestern (1959-61), known as the father of transplantation, performed the first successful liver transplant in 1967 at the University of Colorado. Starzl also conducted the first multiple organ transplant in 1983, the first heart and liver transplant in 1984 and the first liver and intestine transplant in 1990. In 1980, he introduced the anti-rejection medications anti-lymphocyte globulin and cyclosporine. He was instrumental in developing tacrolimus, a drug that significantly increased post-transplantation survival rates.
Charles H. Mayo, MD, founder of the Mayo Clinic and Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, graduated from Northwestern University Medical School in 1888. A renowned surgeon, Mayo pioneered modern goiter surgery and surgical techniques for the nervous system. Mayo received the U.S. Distinguished Service medal, served as president of the American Medical Association and was a trustee of Northwestern University.
Being a physician provides an opportunity for enormous personal growth and professional satisfaction. We know we are going to train great doctors and scientists at Feinberg, but this is a minimal expectation. One might ask, what else will you do to transform the profession and impact human health beyond the individual patient?
The following offices fall under the administration and leadership of Vice President of Medical Affairs and Lewis Landsberg Dean Eric G. Neilson, MD. Connect to administrative support using the links below.
Welcome to our website at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. American medicine has entered an era of boundless possibilities, and Feinberg is poised for even greater accomplishment. Today, we are a superb research-intensive medical school in a wholly integrated academic environment. By building on our strong foundations in biomedical research, education and clinical care, we will continue advancing our collective mission to transform the field of medicine and profoundly impact human health.
Indeed, the quality of our healthcare delivery is among the highest in the country; our three honor roll hospitals and clinical practices at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Childrens Hospital of Chicago and the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab are destinations for the critically ill and those who will benefit from the latest innovations in medical science. But howcan we further advance our commitment to public health beyond the individual patient?
To address this question,we have achieved new alignment with our healthcare partners in Northwestern Medicine, a partnership that brings Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, the Northwestern Medical Group and the Feinberg School of Medicine into closer approximation.Northwestern Medicine offers patients greater access to high quality care and growing functionality for our health system, ensuring strategic planning and resources to execute on common goals and raising our national identity as a leader in medicine. Collaboration creates teamwork and nimbleness that puts patients first by offering inspired care embedded in the best science medicine has to offer.
Against this steady drumbeat of progress, we prepare the next generation of physicians and scientists to become leaders in their fields. Through our innovative education programs, progressive and rigorous curriculum, and emphasis on mastery learning, we train students to become excellent clinicians and to impact the profession of medicine.
Eminent medical schools have other desirable traits, particularly the pursuit of academic excellence and intellectual diversity in an environment where scientists, clinicians, and translational faculty come together for interdisciplinary accomplishment around bright students, trainees, and dedicated staff. Feinberg enjoys the company of exceptional students and trainees working through an ever-evolving curriculum of new knowledge. Our mission going forward, quite simply, is to improve the health of people, and I invite you to join us in this important work.
Feinberg works with a variety of students, residents, and fellows. Our students choose different paths, but all are gaining the skills and knowledge they require to be future leaders in their chosen fields. Following is our student population for the 2021-2022 academic year at a glance.
Feinberg offers a premier medical education and top-notch research programs in large part because of the expertise, experience, and dedication of its faculty. Numbering about 4,000, the medical school's faculty roster includes some of the best minds and hearts in medicine and biomedical research. Many have gained national and international prominence.
Relationships with healthcare institutions provide an important aspect of the educational programs here at Feinberg. Students and residents benefit from the hands-on training and experiential learning they receive at our primary clinical affiliates (hospitals and practice groups). The diverse training provided by these organizations ensures that Feinberg students and residents have the skills necessary to practice in an array of clinical environments.
