NLM Announces 2025 Michael E. DeBakey Fellows in the History of Medicine
Following its May 6, 2024, call for applications to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine, NLM is pleased to announce its 2025 DeBakey Fellows:
Abigail Agresta, PhD
Department of History, George Washington University
Research Project: The Rise of Quarantine in Late Medieval Spain
Claire D. Clark, PhD, MPH
Departments of Behavioral Science and History, University of Kentucky
Research Project: Addiction Treatment Research Before and After the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Act of 1966–The View from the US Public Health Service Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky
Noëlle Foster, PhD
Department of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine, Rutgers University
Research Project: In the Middle of the Stream–Henry Leber Coit and the Formation of
American Pediatrics
Andrew Lea, MD, DPhil
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Research Project: Aid to Thought–A History of the Peripheral Brain in Medicine
Allison Weiderhold, MS
College of Medicine, Kansas City University
Research Project: The Success of Female Cardiac Surgeons–A Historic Review of Mentorship
Anna Winterbottom, PhD
Department of History, McGill University
Research Project: Oral, Visual, and Textual Cultures of Medicine–An Examination of Early Modern Texts in the Collection of the NLM
In addition to undertaking their research projects, NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellows will consult with NLM staff to improve on NLM’s existing finding aids and related resources by enhancing the NLM’s knowledge of its collection and ability to provide informed access to it. Fellows will also author at least one guest article for NLM’s Circulating Now blog, based on their research.
The NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine is made possible through a gift from The DeBakey Medical Foundation. Michael E. DeBakey (1908-2008) was a legendary American surgeon, educator, and medical statesman. During a career spanning 75 years, his work transformed cardiovascular surgery, raised medical education standards, and informed national health care policy. He performed some of the first heart transplants and pioneered dozens of operative procedures such as aneurysm repair, coronary bypass, and endarterectomy, which routinely save thousands of lives each year. His inventions included the roller pump (a key component of heart-lung machines), as well as artificial hearts and ventricular assist pumps. He was a driving force in building Houston's Baylor University College of Medicine into a premier medical center, where he trained several generations of top surgeons from all over the world. Michael DeBakey was instrumental in bringing NLM to the NIH campus and served for many years on NLM’s Board of Regents.
For more information about materials available for historical research at NLM, as well as the NLM Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine, visit https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd, or contact the NLM via the NLM Support Center.