Herbert Leroy Abrams (August 16, 1920 – January 20, 2016) was an American medical doctor. After establishing a career as a radiologist at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

and the Stanford University School of Medicine, Abrams became involved in the

anti-nuclear movement The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, natio ...

. He served on the national board of directors of

Physicians for Social Responsibility Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is a physician-led organization in the US working to protect the public from the threats of nuclear proliferation, climate change, and environmental toxins. It produces and disseminates publications, p ...

and he was the founding vice president of

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) is a non-partisan federation of national medical groups in 63 countries, representing doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned people who share the goal of c ...

(IPPNW).

Biography

Abrams was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. His parents, Morris and Freda Abrams, were Russian immigrants who ran a hardware store. He graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

and the Long Island College of Medicine. Abrams was a faculty member at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He was then the Philip H. Cook Professor of Radiology at

and was the chief radiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana–Farber Cancer Center. He later returned to Stanford and became member-in-residence of the

Center for International Security and Cooperation Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...

. "In the early 1960s, a lot of us were concerned about (nuclear bomb) testing in the atmosphere. Radiologists had to be concerned about that," he said later. Co-founding

(IPPNW), the organization that received the 1985

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

for its attempts to prevent nuclear war, Abrams served as the organization's first vice president. He was a longtime national board member for

, and he had been a national co-chairman for the organization in the 1980s. He was editor-in-chief of the journal ''Postgraduate Radiology'' and the founding editor-in-chief of ''

CardioVascular and Interventional Radiology ''CardioVascular and Interventional Radiology'' is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by Springer. It is the journal of the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe. It had an impact factor of 2.191 in 2016. It is ...

''. Abrams wrote a textbook, ''Angiography'' (1961); in 2000, the fourth edition of the book was named ''Abrams' Angiography''. Abrams was a founding fellow of the

Society of Interventional Radiology The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) is an American national organization of physicians, scientists and allied health professionals dedicated to improving public health through the use of minimally invasive, image-guided therapeutic inte ...

(SIR), and he won an SIR Gold Medal in 2000. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine. Abrams authored ''The President Has Been Shot: Confusion, Disability, and the 25th Amendment in the Aftermath of the Attempted Assassination of Ronald Reagan'' (1992). The book was reviewed favorably in ''

The New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one. Hi ...

''. In his leisure time, he played tennis. He continued to do so until a month before his death. He died in Palo Alto on January 20, 2016 at age 95.

Selected publications from ''
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'' is a nonprofit organization concerning science and global security issues resulting from accelerating technological advances that have negative consequences for humanity. The ''Bulletin'' publishes conte ...
''

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abrams, Herbert L. American radiologists 1920 births 2016 deaths People from Brooklyn SUNY Downstate College of Medicine alumni Cornell University alumni Harvard Medical School faculty Stanford University School of Medicine faculty American anti–nuclear weapons activists Members of the National Academy of Medicine Activists from New York (state) Activists from California Scientists from New York (state) American people of Russian descent