Mary Ellen Wohl

Mary Ellen Beck Wohl (June 12, 1932 - October 9, 2009) was Chief of the Division of Respiratory Diseases at Children's Hospital Boston (a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School), and served as Associate Director of the General Clinical Research Center until 2002. Since the 1962, when she first joined the staff at Children's Hospital, Wohl specialized in the respiratory diseases of children. She was also a leader in the field of clinical research on cystic fibrosis. She developed a number of techniques to evaluate the function of the lungs in young children and is the author of many research papers in this field.

Early life and education Mary Ellen Beck Wohl was born in Cleveland, Ohio on June 12, 1932. Her mother Ellen Manning Beck was a surgical nurse. Her father, Claude Beck, was a surgeon and professor of cardiovascular surgery at Western Reserve University (later Case Western Reserve University). Beck is known for performing the first defibrillation in 1947.

Wohl graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1954 with a bachelor of arts degree. She studied history and literature at Radcliffe but also took pre-med courses. Wohl decided against getting a Ph.D. in history and instead went to medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Beck graduated with her M.D. in 1958. She then took an internship at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.

In 1980, Wohl was named Chief of the Division of Respiratory Diseases at Boston Children's Hospital. She was head of the hospital's Cystic Fibrosis Center from 1985 to 2002. She trained 60 fellows in pediatric pulmonology in the program she founded and developed. In 2002 she retired from the hospital and was named Division Chief emerita.

Wohl was a member of the American Thoracic Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics and served on committees for both societies.

Awards Edwin L. Kendig Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Chest Physicians, 2002 (for outstanding achievements in pediatric pulmonology) American Thoracic Society Lifetime Achievement Award, 2001 Distinguished Alumna Award, 1986, Laurel School Her biography was included by the National Library of Medicine in a list of persons that have "Changed the Face of Medicine".