In Memoriam: Mary Ellen Avery, M.D.

Dear Colleagues,

It is with deep sorrow that I announce award-winning neonatologist Mary Ellen Avery, M.D., passed away last weekend at the age of 84. Her groundbreaking discovery that a lack of surfactant causes respiratory distress syndrome (RSD) in neonates saved the lives of countless infants and significantly advanced the science of neonatal intensive care.

Avery, who was known as "Mel," earned her medical degree in 1952 from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed a residency in pediatrics here in 1957. During her subsequent fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health, she discovered the role of surfactant in RDS.

When Avery returned to Hopkins in 1960, she succeeded Janet Hardy, M.D., and Alexander "Buck" Schaffer, M.D., as director of Newborn Services, the precursor to our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. When the Children's Medical and Surgical Center opened in 1964, Avery became the first director of the NICU.

Schaffer, who coined the term neonatology, published the first edition of Diseases of the Newborn in 1960, but Avery became his co-editor for the third edition and continued on as co-editor through the eighth edition.

Avery left Hopkins in 1969 for McGill University in Montreal, where she served as professor and chair of the department of pediatrics. In 1974, she joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School as professor of pediatrics. Avery served as Children's Hospital of Boston's physician-in-chief from 1974 to 1985 — the first woman to hold that position. She also became the first woman to chair a major clinical department at Harvard Medical School, when she was named the Thomas Morgan Rotch Professor of Pediatrics. She was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1991 for her surfactant discovery, was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1994 and was the first pediatrician to serve as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

After stepping down as physician-in-chief, she focused her efforts on global health, socioeconomic disparities and human rights, working with UNICEF to promote oral rehydration therapy and polio vaccination.

Mary Ellen Avery was a true luminary in the field of pediatric medicine and we were so privileged to have her in our midst for the time that she was here.

Edward D. Miller, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine