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Gallery: PROFESSION

Owsei Temkin, 1966

Owsei Temkin (1902-2002) was an eminent expert on the interaction of medicine and culture throughout history. He published hundreds of articles and a dozen books on topics in the history of medicine, including the history and philosophy of Greco-Arabic medicine.

Temkin was editor of the Bulletin of the History of Medicine from 1948 to 1968, aided by his wife and assistant editor, C. Lilian Temkin.

After the widely respected historian of medicine Henry E. Sigerist (1891-1957) became director of the Institute of the History of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University, he recruited Temkin to join him. Temkin came to the Institute in 1932 and rose through the academic ranks, becoming William H. Welch Professor of the history of medicine and director of the Institute in 1958. Temkin also served as a professor in the Department of the History of Science. (Source: Portrait Collection of Johns Hopkins Medicine, Nursing and Public Health)

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