Sherwin Bernard Nuland MD
Departments & Organizations
Biomedical EthicsSurgery
Biography
Dr. Sherwin Bernard Nuland is clinical professor of Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine, where he received his M.D. degree in 1955. He is Chairman of the Board of Managers of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences and a member of the editorial board of Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. He was a member of the Bioethics Committee of Yale New Haven Hospital from its founding in 1986 until 2000. He is the author of Doctors: The Biography of Medicine (1988), Medicine: The Art of Healing (1992), How We Die (1994), The Wisdom of the Body(1997), and The Mysteries Within: A Surgeon Reflects on Medical Myths (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000). Dr. Nuland won the National Book Award for How We Die in 1994 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Book Critics Circle Award in 1995. The goal of his recent work has been to transmit knowledge of medicine, biomedical ethics, and medical history to the public. His column, “The Uncertain Art,” appears regularly in The American Scholar. He is a contributing editor to The American Scholar and The New Republic.Education
- M.D., Yale University , 1955
Selected Publication
- Nuland. The Mysteries Within: A Surgeon Reflects on Medical Myths . New York: Simon & Schuster. 2000.
Articles

Summer 2003
In Lost in America, a Yale surgeon opens up memories of his father
The latest and most personal book by Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D. ’55, HS ’61, Lost in America: A Journey With My Father,...

Autumn 2008
When the doctor is the patient
Robert L. Klitzman, M.D. ’85, expected the grief that followed the death of his sister Karen, who died at the age of 38...

Autumn 2007
Reeling in the years
Doctors who retire must accept the painful fact that they will “no longer be seen as anybody’s healer,” said Sherwin B....

Spring 2005
Yale team provides tsunami relief
Within five days of the December 26 tsunami that devastated coastal areas in South Asia, six doctors and a public...

Autumn 2005
Reunion 2005
Although the reunion in June officially kicks off with a Friday evening dean’s reception followed by the clambake on...
Autumn 2009
The Soul of Medicine: Tales From the Bedside
by Sherwin Nuland, M.D. ’55, HS ’61 (Kaplan Publishing) This book is a compilation of stories in which more than a...
Spring 2000
The Mysteries Within: A Surgeon Reflects on Medical Myths
by Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D. ’55, HS ’61, clinical professor of surgery, Simon and Schuster (N.Y.), 2000.
Spring 2001
Leonardo da Vinci
by Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D. ’55, HS ’61, clinical professor of surgery; Lipper/ Viking (New York), 2000.Being a...
Spring 2009
The Uncertain Art: Thoughts on a Life in Medicine
by Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., clinical professor of surgery (gastroenterology) (Random House) This volume is a collection...
Fall/Winter 2004
The Doctors’ Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignac Semmelweis
by Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D. ’55, HS ’61, clinical professor of surgery (W.W. Norton & Co.) Before the discovery of...

Spring 2006
Maimonides
by Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D. ’55, HS ’61 (Schocken Books) Maimonides was a physician, a Torah scholar, a community leader...
Spring 2010
Class of 1955: 55th reunion
At first, I was disappointed that we only had 13 members turn up for our 55th reunion. However, after some reflection,...
Autumn 2005
1955 - 50th reunion
There are by our last count 60 living members of our class. A total of 30 were able to attend the reunion for at least...
Summer 2003
Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., HS
Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D. ’55, HS ’61, clinical professor of surgery (gastroenterology), received the John P. McGovern...
Summer 1999
The Show Must Go On
Imagine Deputy Dean for Education Robert H. Gifford, M.D., HS ’67, (the real one) and dozens of his clones (second-year...

Winter 2012
Doctors who write
Making the first cut in a surgical patient shares something with writing the first line of an essay, says surgeon and...

Winter 2007
Infectious disease, internal medicine and Paul Beeson
During his 13 years as chair of internal medicine, Paul Beeson turned the department into one of the best in the...

Spring 2007
The teachings of Maimonides and a moral imperative
The 12th-century physician Maimonides, who lived in Spain and Egypt, achieved fame as a rabbi and philosopher yet...

Spring 2010
Cushing's tumor registery opens to the public
The Cushing Center, new home to the Cushing Tumor Registry, opened its doors to visitors during the annual reunion in...

Fall/Winter 2004
Reunion 2004
Even as all the traditional trappings of reunion—the Friday evening clambake, the Saturday morning symposium and the...



