John Collins Warren

1816-1817 John Collins Warren

The first administrative organization of Harvard Medical School after its founding in 1782 took place in 1816 with the appointment of Dr. John Collins Warren as Dean, a new office created to oversee the institution and its faculty. He was a founder of the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery and the first surgeon to demonstrate the use of ether anesthesia. When Dr. Warren retired, he presented his anatomical collection—over 1,000 specimens—to the Medical School. The gift provided the foundation for the Warren Anatomical Museum, now housed on the fifth floor of the Countway Library of Medicine.

James Jackson

1817-1818 James Jackson

Dr. James Jackson, Harvard's first professor of clinical medicine, found that the time spent with his students on the wards at Massachusetts General Hospital detracted from his formal lecturing, and so he published brief notes of his lectures on physiology, hygiene, pathology, and therapeutics the year before he became Dean. In 1825 he expanded the notes into the Text Book of a Course of Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Physic.

John Gorham

1818-1819 John Gorham

Dr. John Gorham was the Medical School's first professor of chemistry and material medica (pharmacology). Prior to his formal medical education in England, he studied medicine with his future father-in-law, Dr. John Warren, one of the founders of Harvard Medical School.

Walter Channing

1819-1820 Walter Channing

Dr. Walter Channing, a leading obstetrician, was the Medical School's first professor of obstetrics and medical jurisprudence. He was a founder of the Boston Lying-in Hospital for women, now incorporated into Brigham and Women's Hospital, and one of the founders of the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery. Dr. Channing often wrote about social issues.

Jacob Bigelow

1820-1821 Jacob Bigelow

While teaching at Boston Latin School, Jacob Bigelow attended medical lectures given by Dr. John Gorham. Dr. Bigelow was not only a professor and a practicing physician in Boston for 60 years, but also an expert botanist and poet. He founded the Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA as a public health project.

1821-1826 John Collins Warren

1826-1847 Walter Channing

Oliver Wendell Holmes

1847-1853 Oliver Wendell Holmes

A writer and poet, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes was one of the first Americans to introduce microscopy into a medical curriculum. He became Dean of the Medical School at age 38. During his tenure, he and the faculty debated the possibility of admitting women and African-Americans to the school.

John Bernard Swett Jackson

1853-1855 John Barnard Swett Jackson

Harvard's first professor of pathological anatomy, Dr. J. B. S. Jackson also was the first curator of the Warren Anatomical Museum. He proposed that candidates for an MD degree first pass an examination in all of their studies at the Medical School.

David Humphreys Storer

1855-1864 David Humphreys Storer

Dr. Storer studied medicine with John Collins Warren and became chair of obstetrics and medical jurisprudence at the Medical School. He also was a naturalist interested in fish and reptiles, and lectured against the practice of induced abortion.

George Cheyne Shattuck

1864-1869 George Cheyne Shattuck

Along with John Collins Warren and others, Dr. Shattuck founded the Boston Medical Library for physicians in Boston. He also founded St. Paul's School in Concord, NH.

Calvin Ellis

1869-1883 Calvin Ellis

While Dean, Dr. Calvin Ellis received a letter from Harvard President Charles W. Eliot outlining several educational reforms at the Medical School: a three-year course sequence; examinations, partly written, in each department; familiarity with dissection; and attendance for at least two terms. Dr. Ellis implemented the changes in time for the start of the 1871 fall term.

Pickering Bowditch

1883-1893 Henry Pickering Bowditch

Dr. Henry Pickering Bowditch was principally concerned with the research aspects of medicine rather than the medical or surgical treatment of patients, and the school's new Boylston Street facility with five separate laboratories mirrored his interests. Harvard became the first American medical school to offer instruction in pathology and bacteriology, and embryology began to be taught in conjunction with histology. During and after Bowditch's tenure as Dean, the size of the student body increased from 270 students in 1889, to more than 500 in the mid-1890s, and nearly 600 by the turn of the century. The size of the Faculty of Medicine also increased.

William Lambert Richardson

1893-1907 William Lambert Richardson

An obstetrician who studied in Europe and the United States, Dr. William Lambert Richardson practiced medicine at the Boston Dispensary, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Lying-in Hospital, and Children's Hospital. During the period he was Dean of the Medical School, advanced entrance examinations were introduced.

Henry Asbury Christian

1908-1912 Henry Asbury Christian

Dr. Christian was the first physician-in-chief at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, now incorporated into Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Edward Hickling Bradford

1912-1918 Edward Hickling Bradford

A professor of orthopedic surgery, Dr. Bradford was affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston City Hospital, and Children's Hospital. He co-authored a textbook on orthopedic surgery.

David Linn Edsall

1918-1935 David Linn Edsall

Dr. David Linn Edsall served as Dean of both the Medical School and the School of Public Health. A professor of preventive medicine before coming to Harvard, Dr. Edsall was considered a pioneer in modern medicine.

Charles Sidney Burwell

1935-1949 Charles Sidney Burwell

Dr. Burwell was a cardiologist who specialized in circulation changes associated with heart disease. He is credited with bringing attention to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. In 1944, while Dr. Burwell was Dean, women entered Harvard Medical School for the first time on an equal basis with men. In an address to students at the Medical School, he said, "Half of what we are going to teach you is wrong, and half of it is right. Our problem is that we don't know which half is which."

George Packer Berry

1949-1965 George Packer Berry

A former professor of bacteriology, Dr. Berry was instrumental in the establishment of the Channing Laboratory, a research facility that continues to focus on infection. He was concerned with how students learn and was a national leader in medical education. Dr. Berry maintained that it is preferable to graduate medical students who know less, but who better understand how to learn more.

Robert Higgins Ebert

1965-1977 Robert Higgins Ebert

Dr. Ebert's research focused on tuberculosis. He wrote about problems in medical education, including the roles of full-time and part-time faculty and the responsibilities of teaching hospitals to the communities around them. He developed a new faculty appointment category, Clinical Full-Time, thus expanding the School's function in the clinical arena. In 1969 Dr. Ebert was instrumental in forming a distinguished group that founded the Harvard Community Health Plan, the first university-sponsored plan to provide comprehensive health care to a subscriber population.

Daniel Charles Tosteson

1977-1997 Daniel Charles Tosteson

During his tenure, Dr. Tosteson gained a national reputation for dramatically changing the way medicine is taught and for developing innovative ways to foster research. He championed "The New Pathway" for medical education, emphasizing the need for life-long learning. He guided the growth of research by the school's faculty on the Quadrangle and in research units at the school's affiliated teaching hospitals. Dr. Tosteson was a founder of the Giovanni Armenise–Harvard Foundation, which supports multidisciplinary, basic science research by leading scientists at Harvard Medical School and at foremost institutions in Italy.

Joseph B. Martin

1997-2007 Joseph B. Martin

Joseph Boyd Martin, MD, PhD, Caroline Shields Walker Professor of Neurobiology and Clinical Neuroscience, was appointed Dean of the Harvard Faculty of Medicine effective July 1, 1997.

Jeffrey S. Flier

2007-2016 Jeffrey S. Flier

Jeffrey S. Flier became the 21st Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University on September 1, 2007. Flier, an endocrinologist and an authority on the molecular causes of obesity and diabetes, is the Caroline Shields Walker Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Previously he had served as Harvard Medical School Faculty Dean for Academic Programs and Chief Academic Officer for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard teaching affiliate.