History

Throughout our history, we have maintained a strong commitment to diversity and serving its community in the context of studying and practicing medicine.

  • 1848: The New England Female Medical College was founded, becoming the first institution in the U.S. to train women in medicine and graduated the first black female physician, Rebecca Lee Crumpler.
  • 1873: Boston University merged with the New England Female Medical College, becoming the first accredited coeducational medical school in the U.S.
  • 1890: The first Native American physician, Charles Eastman, graduated from the School. He was featured as the central figure in “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”
  • 1897: First African-American psychiatrist, Solomon Carter Fuller, graduated from the School.
  • 1942: First section of gastroenterology in the U.S. was established at the School.
  • 1944: First studies on the use of penicillin in civilians with infectious diseases.
  • 1948: First medical school to work with the U.S. Public Health Service National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to identify risk factors for cardiovascular disease, creating the Framingham Heart Study.
  • 1991: Susan Leeman, PhD, is elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Leeman is an endocrinologist and a pioneer in the field of neuroendocrinology.
  • 2008: Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Osamu Shimomura for his work on green fluorescent protein
  • 2008: Construction ended and BU became the home of the NIH-funded National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, one of few such labs in the country.
  • 2022: Historic $100M transformational gift from Edward Avedisian that renamed the school the Boston University Aram V. Chobanian & Edward Avedisian School of Medicine.
  • 2023:  Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded to Drew Weissman (CAMED’87, GRS’87, Hon.’23) for Breakthrough mRNA technology that led to COVID vaccines

In addition, the School pioneered medical education in many ways, including:

  • Being among the first schools in the U.S. to offer the combined BA/MD degree
  • Having the first combined cancer research and teaching laboratory established in the U.S.