Sabin History

Florence Sabin

     Dr. Florence Rena Sabin carved out three brilliant and diversified careers--one as a teacher, one as a research scientist and the third as a crusader for better public health in her beloved state.
     Dr. Sabin was born in Central City, Colorado.

In 1895, Dr. Sabin was one of the early women students at Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 1902, she began her teaching career which spanned 23 years, most of which were concurrent with her outstanding career as a medical researcher. In 1917, she became the first woman to attain a full professorship at Johns Hopkins University.
     In 1925, Dr. Sabin was the first woman elected to a life membership in the National Academy of Sciences, and she was the first woman invited to join the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. She established there a Department of Cellular Studies and continued work on the origin of tuberculosis.
In, 1938, at the age of 67, she began in Colorado her third career. Following her selection in 1944 as chairman of a state postwar subcommittee on health, she fought a winning fight for the so called "Sabin Health Bills" which resulted in the enactment of adequate state health laws.
    She later reorganized Denver's Health Department. In celebration of Dr. Sabin's 80th birthday, the Florence R. Sabin Building for Research in Cellular Biology was dedicated at the University of Colorado Department of Medicine on December 1, 1951.