Focus
Upcoming
Tuesday, October 2
Book Signing
Presenter:
Joseph Murray, HMS
5:30 p.m.
Countway Library
Harvard Medical School
Joseph Murray, HMS professor emeritus of surgery, will be signing copies of his recently published autobiography, Surgery of the Soul: Reflections on a Curious Career, at Countway Library on Oct. 2.
From assisting in the surgical reconstruction of a severely burned pilot during World War II to performing the first successful kidney transplant to winning the 1990 Nobel Prize in medicine, Murray has led a long and remarkable career in surgery.
In his autobiography, he tells not only his own story but those of 14 patients whom he helped. It was on these patients that he pioneered advances in surgical techniques to correct deformities of the head and face and with whom he made breakthroughs in human organ transplantation. The book, published by Science History Publications for the Boston Medical Library, includes detailed discussions of the surgical techniques used and the challenges faced in treating each of the patients.
Murray served as chief plastic surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital from 1951 to 1986 and at Children's Hospital from 1972 to 1985.