Dorothy Hansine Andersen

Dorothy Hansine Andersen ( born May 15, 1901 in Asheville, North Carolina, † March 3, 1963 in New York City, New York) was an American pediatrician and pathologist.

Life

Dorothy Hansine Andersen was the daughter of Hans Peter Andersen, a Danish doctor from the island of Bornholm, and his wife Mary Louise Mason. After the early death of her father in 1914, the only 13 -year-old Dorothy moved with her sick mother to St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Her mother died six years later from cancer. In 1922, Andersen received her bachelor's degree at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley. Shortly after, she began her medical studies at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Your initial research, she caught the Florence Rena Sabin (1871-1953), a leading scientist of the United States, and later specialized in embryology. In 1926 she received her degree in medicine and then a surgical internship at Strong Memorial Hospital of the University of Rochester in Rochester. In the early 1930s she taught at the medical faculty of Columbia University and since 1935 she has been a pathologist at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. In the following years she turned on extensive studies and researches on the disease cystic fibrosis. In the 1940s, they found a diagnostic test, which made it possible to begin appropriate treatment and thus to achieve an extension of the life of cystic fibrosis patients. She was also known for her pioneering research in nutrition.

Dorothy Hansine Andersen died on March 3, 1963 at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City of lung cancer, it has been a lifetime heavy smoker.

Awards

For its services, Andersen received numerous awards, including the Mead Johnson Award for Pediatric Research (1938 ), the Borden Award for Research in Nutrition (1948 ), the Elizabeth Blackwell Award ( 1954), the Big Heart Award Variety Club of Philadelphia (1963 ), and the Distinguished Service Medal of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center (1963, posthumous). She was inducted into the National Women 's Hall of Fame for her " indelible impact on society and medicine."