13 Medical Schools That Trained Influential Doctors
Discover medical schools that trained influential physicians.
While many people aspire to become physicians, only a few candidates are accepted to the nation's most prestigious medical schools. Low acceptance rates, coupled with the years of demanding training required to obtain a medical license, are significant hurdles that med school hopefuls must overcome.
Though the path to a medical career is rarely easy, if you're inspired by those who have made long-lasting contributions -- from creating vaccines to identifying diseases previously unknown to science -- you'll find hope in the stories of successful doctors.
Read on to discover where 13 notable doctors attended medical school.
Dr. Victor McKusick
School where he earned his medical degree: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore
U.S. News research rank: 2
U.S. News primary care rank: 26 (tie)
McKusick, a doctor who the National Institutes of Health website describes as the "founding father of medical genetics," was known for his efforts to map the human genome. He discovered the genetic cause of numerous inheritable diseases, including Marfan syndrome and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. McKusick was a founding president of the Human Genome Organization, a group that contributed to the Human Genome Project.
Dr. Alice Hamilton
School where she earned her medical degree: University of Michigan Medical School
U.S. News research rank: 15
U.S. News primary care rank: 7
Hamilton -- an expert on the prevention, identification and removal of occupational health hazards -- was an influential public health scholar in the early 20th century who advocated for workplace safety. She was the first female professor at Harvard Medical School, where she was appointed to teach in 1919. On the 25th anniversary of Hamilton's death, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp with her picture.
Dr. Jonas Salk
School where he earned his medical degree: New York University School of Medicine
U.S. News research rank: 3 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 53 (tie)
Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine, never patented his vaccine or profited from its creation, because he wanted the vaccine to save as many lives as possible. He famously risked his own life and the lives of his family members by testing the polio vaccine on himself and his loved ones before testing the vaccine on others.
Dr. Virginia Apgar
School where she earned her medical degree: Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City
U.S. News research rank: 11 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 43 (tie)
Apgar, the creator and namesake of the Apgar score, a test grade that is assigned to newborn infants based on their vital signs, was a trailblazing anesthesiologist. Her revolutionary method for quickly and accurately assessing a baby's health shortly after childbirth is one that is now the standard of care, and it is a practice which medical experts say has dramatically reduced infant mortality. She was the first female physician to be appointed as a professor at Columbia University's medical school.
Dr. Aaron Beck
School where he earned his medical degree: Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut
U.S. News research rank: 11 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 51 (tie)
Beck, a revolutionary in the field of psychiatry, invented the cognitive behavioral therapy method, a technique that therapists use to help patients break negative thinking patterns and improve their behaviors. Beck also developed the Beck Hopelessness Scale, a risk assessment scoring system that therapists use to gauge the suicide risk of their patients.
Dr. Michael Gottlieb
School where he earned his medical degree: University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York
U.S. News research rank: 32 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 32 (tie)
Gottlieb and his colleagues identified Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, now known as AIDS, as a disease in 1981, when he wrote a report alerting the federal agency that is now known as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the public health threat posed by this disease. Since then, he has treated HIV and AIDS patients as a physician, and he has also been a vocal advocate for people who suffer from these conditions.
Dr. Jane C. Wright
School where she earned her medical degree: New York Medical College
U.S. News research rank: Rank Not Published
U.S. News primary care rank: Rank Not Published
Wright, a cancer researcher, studied the effectiveness of various chemotherapy drugs, and she and her father, Louis, introduced new chemotherapy chemicals and techniques. As an African-American female doctor who began her medical career before the passage of federal civil rights legislation, Wright defied negative racial and gender stereotypes. During an era when there were only a few hundred African-American female doctors in the U.S., Wright was a medical school professor at New York University, and she was the first woman elected president of the New York Cancer Society.
Dr. Harvey Cushing
School where he earned his medical degree: Harvard Medical School in Boston
U.S. News research rank: 1
U.S. News primary care rank: 12 (tie)
Cushing, an influential brain surgeon who invented many surgery techniques that are now commonplace, is sometimes referred to as the "father of neurosurgery." He discovered the disease named after him, Cushing's disease, which is a disorder of the pituitary gland.
Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
School where she earned her medical degree: University of Zurich
U.S. News research rank: N/A (This school is based in Switzerland and was not included in the U.S. News medical school rankings.)
U.S. News primary care rank:: N/A
U.S. News Best Global Universities rank: 59 (tie)
Kübler-Ross, a pioneering psychiatrist and a leader in the hospice care movement, is the author of a book that revolutionized the way doctors treat terminal patients. The book, "On Death and Dying," identified the five stages of grief as denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. This conceptual model is now commonly used in psychiatry to assess how well terminally ill people are coping with their diagnosis.
Dr. Edward Conner
School where he earned his medical degree: University of California--San Francisco School of Medicine
U.S. News research care rank: 5
U.S. News primary care rank: 2
Conner is senior vice president and chief medical officer at Sangamo Therapeutics, a biotechnology company that specializes in designing gene-editing therapies for serious inheritable diseases. The company is conducting clinical trials of treatments that could potentially save the lives of people born with fatal genetic illnesses.
Dr. Nir Barzilai
School where he earned his medical degree: Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel
U.S. News research rank: N/A
U.S. News primary care rank: N/A
U.S. News Best Global Universities rank: 239 (tie)
Barzilai, the founding director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, conducted genetic studies of centenarians, which revealed the genes that are correlated with human longevity. His research focuses on identifying the genetic and nutritional factors that influence a person's lifespan, and his discoveries are being used to create treatments for age-related health conditions like diabetes.
Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez
School where he earned his medical degree: Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
U.S. News research rank: 72 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 61 (tie)
Rodriguez, a plastic surgeon and a medical school professor at New York University, led a surgery team that successfully performed a full face transplant for an injured fireman. He specializes in treating trauma victims and other people who suffer from serious disfigurements.
Dr. Anthony Atala
School where he earned his medical degree: University of Louisville School of Medicine
U.S. News research rank: 78 (tie)
U.S. News primary care rank: 93 (tie)
Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine, grows human cells, tissues and organs, and he is attempting to develop solutions to the international shortage of donor organs. He has won a bevy of prizes for his innovation, including the World Technology Award in Health and Medicine.
Decide which medical school is right for you.
Medical school is costly both in terms of time and money, so it's important to attend a school that will help you match with a medical residency program, which is often required to obtain a U.S. state license to practice medicine without supervision. It's also important to consider a school's curriculum and to speak with current students about their experiences to gauge whether the school is a good fit.
Access the U.S. News medical school rankings to identify institutions that specialize medical research or primary care medicine disciplines. For guidance on finding a medical school, follow U.S. News Education on Twitter and Facebook.
Ilana Kowarski is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering graduate schools. You can reach her via email at ikowarski@usnews.com.
