Editing Simon Flexner

{{Short description|American physician and scientist (1863–1946)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Simon Flexner
| image               = Picture of Simon Flexner.jpg
| caption             = 
| title               = Director of [[Rockefeller University|Rockefeller Institute]]
| order               = 1st
| term_start          = 1901
| term_end            = 1935
| predecessor         = 
| successor           = [[Herbert Spencer Gasser]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1863|3|25}}
| birth_place         = [[Louisville, Kentucky]], US
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1946|5|2|1863|3|25}}
| death_place         = New York City, US
| signature           = 
| module              = {{Infobox scientist | embed = yes
  |field             = [[Physician]], medical [[educator]], and experimental [[pathologist]]
  |work_institutions = [[Johns Hopkins University]]<br>[[Rockefeller University|Rockefeller Institute]]<br>[[Balliol College, Oxford]]
  |alma_mater        =
  |doctoral_advisor  = 
  |doctoral_students = [[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]]
  |known_for         = 
  |author_abbrev_bot = 
  |author_abbrev_zoo = 
  |influences        = 
  |influenced        = 
  |prizes            = 
  }}
| honorific_suffix    = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|ForMemRS}}
| education           = [[University of Louisville]]
| awards              = [[Cameron Prize of the University of Edinburgh]] {{small|(1911)}}
}}

'''Simon Flexner''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=[[Foreign Member of the Royal Society|ForMemRS]]}}<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Rous | first1 = P. | author-link = Francis Peyton Rous| title = Simon Flexner. 1863–1946 | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1949.0006 | journal = [[Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 6 | issue = 18 | pages = 408–426 | year = 1949 | s2cid = 159733258 }}</ref> (March 25, 1863 – May 2, 1946) was a [[physician]], [[scientist]], administrator, and [[professor]] of experimental [[pathology]] at the [[University of Pennsylvania]] (1899–1903).  He served as the first director of the [[Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research]] (1901–1935) (later developed as Rockefeller University) and a [[trustee]] of the [[Rockefeller Foundation]].  He was also a friend and adviser to [[John D. Rockefeller Jr.]]

Among Flexner's most important achievements are studies into [[poliomyelitis]] and the development of serum treatment for [[meningitis]]. Among his lab assistants were [[Hideyo Noguchi]] and [[Cornelius Rhoads]], later directors of [[Memorial Hospital (New York City, New York)|Memorial Hospital]] and the [[Sloan-Kettering Institute]], respectively.

The bacteria species ''[[Shigella flexneri]]'' was named in recognition of Flexner.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Flexner | first1 = S. | author-link = Simon Flexner| title = The Etiology of Tropical Dysentery | journal = The British Medical Journal | volume = 2 | issue = 2074 | pages = 917–920 | year = 1900 | jstor = 20265833}}</ref><ref>{{WhoNamedIt|synd|3642|Shigella flexneri}}</ref> In addition, Flexner was the first to describe [[Flexner-Wintersteiner rosette]]s, a characteristic finding in [[retinoblastoma]], a type of cancer.

==Early life and career==
Simon was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Moritz (Morris) Flexner, a Jewish immigrant from [[Všeruby (Domažlice District)|Neumark]], [[Bohemia]], via several years in [[Strasbourg]], [[France]]; and Ester from [[Roden, Bavaria|Roden]], [[Germany]].<ref name="Autobiography">''Abraham Flexner: An Autobiography'', New York: SImon and Schuster, 1960, pp. 2–4.</ref> He was the fourth son of seven in a large family of nine children: Jacob, Henry, and Isadore; then Simon, followed by [[Bernard Flexner]], [[Abraham Flexner]], and Washington. The two sisters Mary and Gertrude were the youngest. Jacob became a pharmacist and physician, Bernard became a [[Zionist]] leader, and Abraham became an educator, eventually influencing the direction of medical education in the United States.<ref name="griffen">{{cite journal| pmc=1356289 | pmid=15166960 | volume=239 | issue=6 | title=Jacob: the other Flexner | journal=Ann Surg | pages=808–817 | last1 = Griffen Jr | first1 = WO | year=2004 | doi=10.1097/01.sla.0000128684.67062.39}}</ref>

Simon first gained a degree from the [[Louisville College of Pharmacy]] and worked with his brother Jacob for eight years.<ref name="griffen"/>

==Medical school and career==
[[File:The Popular science monthly (1912) (14767301904).jpg|left|thumb|Illustration of Flexner on a 1912 cover of ''[[Popular_Science#Early_history|Popular Science Monthly]]''|upright=0.7]]
He returned to college, getting his medical degree from Louisville Medical College in 1889. He did postgraduate work in pathology at [[Johns Hopkins University]] Medical School, and started teaching there. By 1899, he was a professor of pathology at the [[University of Pennsylvania]].<ref name="griffen"/>

Flexner was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1901.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Simon+Flexner&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-01-27|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

He taught at Penn until 1903, but was called to the [[Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research]] (later Rockefeller University), where he started serving as its first director in 1901.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Simon-Flexner|title=Simon Flexner {{!}} American pathologist and bacteriologist|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-10-05|language=en}}</ref> He managed the research institute until 1935. Through this affiliation and related work, he came to know the [[philanthropist]] [[John D. Rockefeller]], who supported research and basic medical care.

In December 1907 Flexner declared in a reading of his paper on "Tendencies in Pathology" in the [[University of Chicago]] that it would be possible in the then-future for diseased human organs [[Organ transplantation|substitution for healthy ones by surgery]]—including arteries, stomach, [[Kidney transplantation|kidneys]] and [[Heart transplantation|heart]].<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/01/02/104713376.pdf MAY TRANSPLANT THE HUMAN HEART] ([[Portable Document Format|.PDF]]), ''[[The New York Times]]'', January 2, 1908</ref> These previsions became reality in the second half of the 20th century.

<!--The institute had a long relationship with the government of Puerto Rico, conducting research and working on health issues there, such as [[anemia]] (caused by [[hookworm]] and [[tropical sprue]]), as well as polio and a variety of diseases.{{Citation needed|date=October 2017}}-->
In 1911, Flexner was awarded the [[Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh]].

From 1910 to 1914 he was a trustee of the [[Carnegie Institution]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Carnegie Institution of Washington. Year Book No. 47, July 1, 1947 – June 30, 1948|year=1948|location=Washington, DC|page=vi|url=http://shelf2.library.cmu.edu/Tech/01116801N47.pdf}}</ref>

==Marriage and family==
Simon Flexner married [[Helen Thomas Flexner|Helen Thomas]] (later professor of English) and had a family. His son [[James Thomas Flexner]] became a prolific writer; one of his works was an extensive biography of [[George Washington]].

Simon Flexner died in May 1946 in New York City, from a [[myocardial infarction]] (heart attack).  He was 83 years old. His papers are currently housed at the [[American Philosophical Society]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.B.F365-ead.xml|title=Simon Flexner papers|website=American Philosophical Society Library|access-date=March 11, 2018|archive-date=September 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918175006/https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.B.F365-ead.xml|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the Becker Medical Library at the [[Washington University School of Medicine]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://beckerarchives.wustl.edu/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=8665|title=Simon Flexner Papers {{!}} Bernard Becker Medical Library Archives|website=beckerarchives.wustl.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-03-11}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Abraham Flexner]] (1866–1959), American educator
*[[Charles Flexner]] (born 1956), American physician, clinical pharmaceutical scientist, academic, author and researcher
*[[James Thomas Flexner]] (1908–2003), American historian and biographer

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.amphilsoc.org/mole/view?docId=ead%2FMss.B.F365-ead.xml "Simon Flexner"]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, American Philosophical Society

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Flexner, Simon}}
[[Category:Rockefeller Foundation people]]
[[Category:1863 births]]
[[Category:1946 deaths]]
[[Category:Physicians from Louisville, Kentucky]]
[[Category:Presidents of Rockefeller University]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:American people of Czech-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American people of German-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Jewish physicians]]
[[Category:Jewish American scientists]]
[[Category:Trustees of charities]]
[[Category:Members of the Men's League]]
[[Category:Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]