Francis G. Blake, M.D.
Brief Bio
Francis Gilman Blake (1887–1952) was the twenty-first president of the American Association of Immunologists, serving from 1934 to 1935. He was a professor and chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine and physician-in-chief of the New Haven Hospital for more than three decades, from 1921 to 1952.
Blake received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1913. He completed his medical residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital) from 1913 to 1916 and held positions at the University of Minnesota Medical School (1917–1919) and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (1919–1921) before joining the Yale faculty as the John Slade Ely Professor of Medicine (1921–1927). He was named Sterling Professor of Medicine in 1927, a position he held until his death. From 1940 to 1947, he was dean of the Yale School of Medicine. Blake took a leave of absence from Yale in January 1952 to serve as civilian technical director of the Medical Research and Development Board of the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C. He died in Walter Reed Hospital on February 1, 1952, one week after he was admitted for the treatment of a coronary occlusion.
AAI Service History
Joined: 1921
President: 1934–1935
Councillor: 1935–1939
The Journal of Immunology
Board of Editors: 1936–1942
Associate Editor: 1943–1952
Awards and Honors
- Charles V. Chapin Memorial Award, City of Providence, RI, 1945
- U.S. Typhus Commission Medal, 1945
- U.S. Medal for Merit, 1946
- Member, National Academy of Sciences, 1947
- Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1948
- Member, American Philosophical Society, 1949
Institutional/Biographical Links