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 medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

and the

Stanford University School of Medicine The Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California, United States. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Fra ...

, Abrams became involved in the

anti-nuclear movement The Anti-nuclear war movement is a new social movements, social movement that opposes various nuclear technology, nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified them ...

. 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 ...

(IPPNW).

Biography

Abrams was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

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

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

and the Long Island College of Medicine. Abrams was a faculty member at the

. He was then the Philip H. Cook Professor of Radiology at

and was the chief radiologist at

Brigham and Women's Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH or The Brigham) is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the largest hospital in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two ...

and Dana–Farber Cancer Center. He later returned to Stanford and became member-in-residence of the

Center for International Security and Cooperation Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

. "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 (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

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''. 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 A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soc ...

(SIR), and he won an SIR Gold Medal in 2000. He was a member of the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

. 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. Founded in 1812, the journal is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals. Its 2023 impact factor w ...

''. 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 Physicians 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-Jewish descent