Anne Pappenheimer Forbes

Anne Pappenheimer Forbes (1911–1992) was an American endocrinologist. A graduate of Radcliffe College and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, she was an associate of Fuller Albright, who was the endocrinology chief at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Forbes was one of the first women to reach the rank of clinical professor at Harvard Medical School. Forbes opened the Ovarian Dysfunction Clinic at MGH, and she took on much of the administrative responsibility for Albright's research studies beginning in the late 1930s, when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. She practiced medicine until 1980. Forbes-Albright syndrome is partly named for her. Early life Forbes was born Anne Pappenheimer in New York City on November 11, 1911. Her father, Alwin Max Pappenheimer, was a physician and professor of pathology at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. Two brothers, John Pappenheimer and Alwin Max Pappenheimer Jr., became science professors at Harvard University. Forbes attended the Lincoln School in New York, where she had diverse extracurricular involvement. She was a writer for the school newspaper, learned to farm, and rode horses. At the Lincoln School she identified that she wanted to be a farmer or a doctor. She entered Radcliffe College at the age of 16. In 1931, with Forbes headed into her senior year at Radcliffe, her parents took her on a trip through several countries, including Russia and China. She was away from her studies for several months, and had to make up the time in summer school. Part of her summer work involved biochemistry studies at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. She was granted an undergraduate degree in 1933, after she completed her first year of medical school at Columbia.