Dr. Gerard N. Burrow -- who on June 30 completes a five-year term as the 14th dean of the School of Medicine and begins a new position as special adviser on health affairs to President Richard C. Levin -- has been named the David Paige Smith Professor of Medicine, by vote of the Yale Corporation.
President Levin announced Dr. Burrow's appointment to the endowed professorship during his remarks on June 7 at the annual meeting of the Association of Yale Alumni in Medicine. More than 350 alumni and guests returned to the school for scientific presentations on cancer, a New England clambake, Dr. Burrow's state-of-the-school address and reunion conversations with their classmates.
Dr. Burrow will assume the Smith chair on July 1. Established by an anonymous bequest in 1912, the professorship focuses on the theory and practice of medicine. Mr. Smith, who died in 1880, received a B.A. degree in 1851 from Yale College. In addition, Dr. Burrow becomes senior adviser to the World Health Organization's Programme on Maternal and Newborn Health-Safe Motherhood.
Dr. Burrow, a 1958 graduate of the School of Medicine and a member of its faculty for 15 years, returned to Yale in 1992 from the University of California at San Diego, where he served as vice chancellor for health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine for over four years. In addition to his leadership in American academic medicine, Dr. Burrow possesses extensive experience in the Canadian health-care system. For 12 years in Toronto, he was physician-in- chief and director of the division of endocrinology and metabolism at Toronto General Hospital, and the Sir John and Lady Eaton Professor and chair of the department of medicine at the University of Toronto.
An endocrinologist, Dr. Burrow has done extensive research on the thyroid, emphasizing how the growth of the gland is controlled. His clinical interests have centered on thyroid disease in pregnant women, particularly the treatment of hyperthyroidism. In November 1993, Dr. Burrow was presented the a Distinguished Service Award by the American Thyroid Association, which he headed as president in 1986. A member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals, Dr. Burrow is the author of numerous publications and coeditor of a major textbook, "Medical Complications During Pregnancy."
Dr. Burrow is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He serves on the board of directors of YNHH, Gaylord Hospital and Mystic Seaport Aquarium, and the administrative boards of the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Association of Academic Health Centers.
Dr. Burrow earned a B.A. degree in 1954 from Brown University. He completed his internship and residency training at Yale-New Haven Hospital 1958-66, and served as chief resident 1965-66. As part of this training, he took a fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at the School of Medicine and also spent two years in Nagasaki, Japan. There, he served as a senior assistant surgeon in the U.S. Public Health Service with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, examining the growth and development of adolescents whose mothers were pregnant with them at the time of the atomic bombing. From 1966 to 1976, Dr. Burrow was a Yale medical faculty member and an attending physician at YNHH.