This is a list of notable alumni of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Graduates from before 1922 can be confirmed within the University of Pennsylvania alumni catalogue. Graduates from 1840 and before (and honorary degree holders) can also be found in the 1839 (with 1840 addendum) catalogue.
Alumni (award winners and summary of elected officials) Nobel Laureates Michael S. Brown (born April 13, 1941) Penn Med Class of 1965, Nobel laureate who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985 for describing the regulation of cholesterol metabolism and is also the 1985 recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research Gerald Edelman: (July 1, 1929 – May 17, 2014) Penn Med Class of 1954, was an American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on the immune system via research resulting in discovery of the structure of antibody moleculesStructural differences among antibodies of different specificities by G. M. Edelman, B. Benacerraf, Z. Ovary and M. D. Poulik in Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A (1961) volume 47, pages 1751-1758. and was founder and director of The Neurosciences Institute Stanley B. Prusiner: (born May 28, 1942) Penn College Class of 1964 and Penn Med Class of 1968, is an American neurologist and biochemist who discovered prions, a class of infectious self-reproducing pathogens primarily or solely composed of protein resulting in him being awarded the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1994 and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1997 for research on prion diseases developed by him and his team of experts (among them D. E. Garfin, D. P. Stites, W. J. Hadlow, C. M. Eklund) Gregg Semenza: (born July 12, 1956), Penn Med Class of 1982, Professor of Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he serves as the director of the vascular program at the Institute for Cell Engineering, is a 2016 recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, is known for his discovery of HIF-1, which allows cancer cells to adapt to oxygen-poor environments, and shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability"
Medal of Honor recipients William R. D. Blackwood (May 12, 1838 – April 26, 1922) University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (Class of 1862): wrote thesis on gastro-intestinal digestion and in September 1862 (mere months after having his thesis approved) enlisted into the 149th Pennsylvania Infantry as an Assistant Surgeon and within a year was promoted to Chief Surgeon of 48th Pennsylvania Infantry such that during the Third Battle of Petersburg on April 2, 1865, he was in position to assist a number of seriously wounded soldiers to leave the battlefield at risk to his own life resulting in his being awarded the Medal of Honor, United States' highest award for bravery during combat, for his bravery and heroics Joseph K. Corson (November 22, 1836 – July 24, 1913) University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (Class of 1863): awarded Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for bravery, during combat at Battle of Bristoe Station in Virginia on October 14, 1863, by helping to rescue (at risk to his own life) a severely wounded soldier left between the lines while under Confederate artillery fire
Summary of Alumni elected to federal or state governmental offices As detailed below and in University of Pennsylvania Archives, at least (a) 41 Penn Med alumni served in United States House of Representatives representing 12 states, (b) 5 Penn Med alumni served in United States Senate representing 4 states, (c) 9 Penn Med alumni served in 7 different state legislatures, (d) 3 Penn Med alumni served as Governors of 3 different states, and (e) 1 Penn Med alumnus was elected (and served) as President of the United States.
Alumni (noteworthy) in chronological order of year they were due to graduate 18th century John Archer, (May 5, 1741 – September 28, 1810) Class of 1768: first person to receive a medical degree from an American school, practiced law in Harford County, Maryland, was a member of the Revolutionary committee from 1774 to 1776, raised a military company during the American Revolutionary War, was a member of the first state constitutional convention of 1776, served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1777 to 1779, was volunteer aide-de-camp to General Anthony Wayne at Stony Point, in 1779 was made a captain and subsequently a major in the Continental Army, was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1801, until March 3, 1807, as a U.S. Congressman in sixth district of Maryland David Jackson, (1747 – September 17, 1801) Class of 1768: appointed to raise funds as a quartermaster by managing the lottery to benefit the American Revolutionary War for the Continental Army, served as paymaster for the Pennsylvania militia, which he resigned to serve in the field with the militia as an army surgeon, served as Pennsylvania delegate to the Sixth Congress under Articles of Confederation (which met from November 7, 1785, through November 2, 1786), and was a member of the American Philosophical Society David Ramsay (April 2, 1749 – May 8, 1815), Class of 1773, 1780 (Hon. M.D.): served from 1776 to 1783 as a member of the South Carolina legislature, served with the South Carolina militia as a field surgeon during the Siege of Charleston in 1780 and was captured by the British and imprisoned for nearly a year at St. Augustine, Florida, served as a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1782 to 1786 (including a stint acting as president during sixth Congress of the Confederation when president John Hancock was absent), served three terms in the South Carolina Senate (including time as its president), and is considered one of the first major historians (in the European Enlightenment tradition) of the American Revolution era Caspar Wistar, (September 13, 1761 – January 22, 1818) Class of 1782: (also received medical degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1786 where he was elected president of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh), appointed (a) professor of chemistry from 1789 till 1792, (b) adjunct professor of anatomy, midwifery, and surgery from 1793 until 1808, and (c) chair of anatomy from 1808 until his death in 1818 (all at Penn Medical schools or their predecessors), was elected (1) Fellow American College of Physicians in 1787 (2) Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1803, (3) president of the American Philosophical Society in 1815 and (4) President of the Society for the Abolition of Slaveryhttps://archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/penn-people/biography/caspar-wistar access date January 1, 2022. Adam Seybert (May 16, 1773 – May 2, 1825), Class of 1793: elected as (a) member of the American Philosophical Society in 1797, (b) Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1824, (c) Democratic-Republican to the Eleventh Congress (to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Benjamin Say), Twelfth, Thirteenth Congresses. He was again elected to the Fifteenth Congresses of the United States House of Representatives, chairman of the United States House Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business William Henry Harrison, (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) Class of 1793: Considered a non-graduate alumnus of the Class of 1793, Harrison only spent a semester at Penn. He studied chemistry under professor Benjamin Rush, and anatomy and surgery under William Shippen. He would go onto join the army and have a successful career there leading to numerous government positions including the President of the United States. Lewis Condict, (March 3, 1772 – May 26, 1862) Class of 1794: was sheriff of Morris County from 1801 to 1803, member of the commission for adjusting the boundary line between the States of New York and New Jersey in 1804, member of the New Jersey General Assembly from 1805 to 1809 (serving as speaker of the Assembly in 1808 and 1809), elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Twelfth, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1811, to March 3, 1817, and again elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Seventeenth Congress and Eighteenth Congress as United States representative from New Jersey to the U.S. Congress, trustee of Princeton College, and served as the 24th President of the Medical Society of New Jersey in 1816 and 1819 Charles Caldwell, (May 14, 1772 – July 9, 1853) Class of 1796: founder of the Louisville Medical Institute considered one of the ancestors of University of Louisville School of MedicineE. F. Horine, Biographical Sketch and Guide to the Writings of Charles Caldwell (1960). John Claiborne, (January 26, 1778 – October 9, 1808) Class of 1798: elected representative for Virginia's 17th congressional for Virginia's 17th of the U.S. Congress for two terms from 1805 to 1807 (Ninth Congress) and 1807 to 1808 (Tenth Congress, for which term he did not complete as he died on October 8, 1808) John Hahn, (October 30, 1776 – February 26, 1823) Class of 1798: elected to U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 2nd district to the Fourteenth U.S. Congress (March 4, 1815 - March 3, 1817)
19th century Nathaniel Chapman, Class of 1800: first President of the American Medical Association William Wyatt Bibb, Class of 1801: Georgia representative to the U.S. Congress, U.S. Senate, and 1st Governor of Alabama Hedge Thompson, Class of 1802: New Jersey representative to the U.S. Congress William Darlington, Class of 1804: War of 1812 major of a volunteer regiment, Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress John Floyd, Class of 1804: 25th Governor of Virginia, Virginia representative to the U.S. Congress George Edward Mitchell, Class of 1805: Maryland representative to the U.S. Congress William Potts Dewees, Class of 1806: Obstetrician and author of System of Midwifery, a standard reference book on Obstetrics William P. C. Barton, Class of 1808: author of A Treatise Containing a Plan for the Internal Organization and Government of Marine Hospitals in the U.S.... and Dean of Jefferson Medical College Reuben D. Mussey, Class of 1809: in 1862, wrote the first definitive history of tobacco documenting its dangers Samuel A. Cartwright, (November 3, 1793 – May 2, 1863) did not graduate: improved sanitary conditions during the American Civil War and was honored for his investigations into yellow fever and Asiatic cholera Arnold Naudain, Class of 1810: served in the War of 1812 as surgeon of the Delaware Regiment, U.S. Senator from Delaware Henry H. Chambers, Class of 1811: U.S. Senator from Alabama George Hayward, Class of 1812: Harvard Medical School professor; performed groundbreaking surgery and use of anesthesia Joel Barlow Sutherland, Class of 1812: Pennsylvania representative to the U.S. Congress, served in the War of 1812 as assistant surgeon to the "Junior Artillerists of Philadelphia" George William Crump, Class of 1812 (started in 1808 but did not graduate): member of the United States House of Representatives in the 19th United States Congress and the U.S. Ambassador to Chile and reported to be the first student arrested for running naked (circa 1804) on campus (through Lexington, Virginia), and such arrest is the United States' first recorded incident of streaking Clement Finley, Class of 1818: 10th Surgeon General of the U.S. Army John M. Patton, Class of 1818: Virginia representative to the U.S. Congress George Bacon Wood, Class of 1818: Compiled first Dispensatory of the United States (1833); president of both the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and American Medical Association George McClellan, Class of 1819: founder of Jefferson Medical College, now Thomas Jefferson University