Guide to the James B. Wyngaarden Interview, 1982

Dr. James Wyngaarden was born in Grand Rapids, Mich. in 1924. He attended Calvin College and then Western Michigan College from 1943 to 1944. He received his M.D. in 1948 from University of Michigan Medical School, graduating first in his class. His clinical training was in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. After postdoctoral work at the Public Health Research Institute of the City of New York, he became a research associate at the National Institutes of Health from 1953 to 1956.

Dr. Wyngaarden came to Duke University in 1956 to the Department of Medicine, and he also became associate professor of biochemistry. In 1959, Dr. Wyngaarden assumed the leadership of Duke's medical research training program. He left Duke in 1965 to become the chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1963 to 1964 he was a guest scientist at the Insitut de Biologie Physico-chimique in Paris. From 1967 to 1983 he served as chair the Department of Medicine at Duke University. During that time, he was also Duke's vice chancellor of health affairs.

Wyngaarden became the twelfth director of the National Institutes of Health in 1982, a position which he held until 1989. During his service as president, the NIH increased AIDS research funding and successfully fought to keep its control of the human genome project.

Dr. Wyngaarden has been a member of the president's Science Advisory Committee; the National Academy of Sciences; the American Board of Internal Medicine; the National Academy of Sciences; the American Academy of Arts of Sciences; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Institutes of Medicine; and has been a counselor of the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolic, and Digestive Diseases and president of the Association of American Physicians. He has served on the editorial boards of Medicine and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and has coauthored the three textbooks: The Metabolic Basis of Inherited Disease, Cecil's Textbook of Medicine, and Gout and Hyperuricemia. He has received honorary degrees from the University of Michigan, Medical College of Ohio, University of Illinois at Chicago, George Washington University, and Tel Aviv University.

From 1990 to 1994 he was named the foreign secretary of the National Academy of Sciences.

Collection Overview

Contains audiotapes and transcript of oral history interview with James B. Wyngaarden, former professor and administrator of Duke University Hospital.

Online Catalog Headings

These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.

Collection Series

Detailed Description of the Collection

Dr. Wyngaarden discusses his background; education; war experience; research; internship at Massachusetts General Hospital; work with Walter Bauer on arthritis patients; steroids; potential draft for Korean War; Jim Shannon; National Institutes of Health; Public Health Service; work in Public Health Institute of the City of New York; purines; interest in chemistry; gout; research life at the NIH; eventual dissatisfaction with research life; looking for other employment; excitement at Duke University; Phil Handler; Eugene Stead; declining to work at VA hospital at Duke; arthritis training grant; receiving offer of junior position at Duke; arthritis research; increase in NIH budget, especially under William Sebrell; Department of Medicine taking advantage of NIH funding; financial support of department from PDC; members of department; growth of department; career investigator for NIH; joint appointment in Department of Biochemistry; medical research training program; funding for medical research training program; end of rounding duties in running medical research training program; year's work in the Sorbonne; molecular biochemical genetics; heavy leadership duties at Duke; retirement of Eugene Stead; chairmanship at University of Pennsylvania; meeting with Dr. William Anlyan and Dr. David Sabiston to recruit Wyngaarden back to Duke; atmosphere at University of Pennsylvania versus atmosphere at Duke; chairmanship at Duke; purine metabolism; philosophy and character of Eugene Stead; contrast between research in 1950s and current; Department of Medicine under Eugene Stead; Dan Tosteson; beginnings of research training program; initial faculty of research training program; MD/PhD programs funded by NIH; end of research training program; impact of research training program; new curriculum; advantages and disadvantages of curriculum.

Related Materials

Collection: James B. Wyngaarden Papers.
Repository: Duke University Medical Center Archives