| John P. Merrill | |
| Birth Date: | 10 March 1917 |
| Birth Place: | Hartford, Connecticut |
| Death Place: | Hope Town, Bahamas |
| Profession: | physician medical researcher |
| Research Field: | nephrology |
| Known For: | nephrology kidney transplant |
| Work Institutions: | Peter Bent Brigham Hospital Harvard Medical School |
John Putnam Merrill (March 10, 1917 – April 14, 1984) was an American physician and medical researcher. He led the team which performed the world's first successful kidney transplant.[1] He generally credited as the "father of nephrology"[2] or "the founder of nephrology," which is the scientific study of the kidney and its diseases.[1]
Merrill was born in 1917 in Hartford, Connecticut. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1938, he attended the Harvard Medical School. He graduated in 1942; and he was an intern at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.[2]
During World War II, he served for four years in the Army. Two years were spent on Kwajalein Island in the Pacific with "Operation Crossroads."[2]
Merrill's entire career was spent in Boston at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, now known as Brigham and Women's Hospital. His work as a medical researcher began in 1947. As a resident in medicine, he was assigned to head the team which developed an artificial kidney (the Brigham-Kolff dialyzers) for use in the treatment of acute and chronic kidney failure.[2]
In 1950, Merrill began teaching at Harvard Medical School.[1]
In 1954, Merrill headed the multidisciplinary team that performed the first successful transplant of a kidney between identical twin brothers.[2]
Merrill was made a full professor at Harvard Medical School in 1970.[1] His legacy is found in his students and in those doctors he mentored.[3]
| 1947–1950 | residency, Brigham Hospital | |
| 1950–1956 | investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Brigham Hospital | |
| 1952 | Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital, Paris[4] | |
| 1954 | kidney transplant | |
| 1950–1984 | faculty, Harvard Medical School |
Merrill's career was cut short when he died on April 14, 1984, in a boating accident while vacationing in the Bahamas.[1]
In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about John Merrill, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 20+ works in 30+ publications in 3 languages and 400+ library holdings .[5]
8. Dept of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File