E. Converse Peirce II facts for kids
Edmund Converse Peirce II (born October 9, 1917 – died August 8, 2003) was an American doctor. He was a professor and led the hyperbaric medicine department at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan, New York City. This was from 1966 to 1991. Dr. Peirce wrote over 150 research papers. He is well-known for his important work on artificial blood circulation technology. This includes a special device called the membrane oxygenator.
About His Life
Converse Peirce was born in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. He grew up in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, following the Quaker tradition. His father, Dr. George Peirce, was also a doctor and a chemist. Sadly, his father passed away in a fire when Converse was only 16 months old. His mother, Dr. Ethel Mathews Girdwood Peirce, was a rheumatologist. She raised Converse and his three brothers while also working as a doctor in Philadelphia.
Converse graduated from the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1936. He then went to Harvard College and earned his first degree in 1940. He became a medical doctor from Harvard Medical School in 1943.
After serving in the US Army Medical Corps, he worked at the Children's Hospital in Boston from 1946 to 1948. He then moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he was a professor and surgeon from 1948 to 1954. Later, he became the Chief of Surgery in Knoxville, Tennessee. He also taught at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
From 1966 until he retired in 1991, he was a Professor of Surgery. He also directed the hyperbaric medicine department at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Hyperbaric medicine uses pure oxygen in a special room to help people heal.
Dr. Peirce passed away on August 8, 2003, at his home in Hancock, Maine.
Awards He Received
- 1962 The Osler Abbott Award from the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association. This award recognizes important contributions in heart and lung surgery.
