The University of Puerto Rico is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 44,200 students and approximately 4,450 faculty members. UPR has the largest and most diverse academic offerings in the commonwealth, with 472 academic programs of which 32 lead to a doctorate.
Colonel Bailey Kelly Ashford was an American physician who had a military career in the United States Army, and afterward taught full-time at the School of Tropical Medicine in Puerto Rico, which he helped establish in San Juan.
Antonio Rafael Barceló y Martínez was a Puerto Rican lawyer, businessman and the patriarch of what was to become one of Puerto Rico's most prominent political families. Barceló, who in 1917 became the first President of the Senate of Puerto Rico, played an instrumental role in the introduction and passage of legislation which permitted the realization of the School of Tropical Medicine and the construction of a Capitol building in Puerto Rico.
Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, abbreviated "USC" and often called simply Sagrado, is a private Catholic university in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is one of the oldest and largest educational institutions in Puerto Rico with origins dating back to the 1880 establishment of an elementary school by the Society of the Sacred Heart.
The San Juan Bautista School of Medicine (SJBSM) is a private medical school in Caguas, Puerto Rico. It formally opened its doors in 1978. The school grants the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), Master in Public Health (M.P.H.), Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS), and Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees. The institution also has a local Transitional Year program.
The Ponce Health Sciences University (PHSU), formerly Ponce School of Medicine & Health Sciences, is a private, for-profit university in Ponce, Puerto Rico and St. Louis, Missouri. It awards graduate degrees in Medicine (MD), Clinical Psychology (PsyD and PhD), Biomedical Sciences (PhD), Medical Sciences (MS), and Public Health (MPH and DrPH). The university has 360 students in its medical school and, as of 11 February 2019, was authorized to increase the student body at the medical school to 600 which, when fully in place, will make it the largest private medical school in Puerto Rico and one of the largest under the American flag.
The University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, School of Medicine is located in the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's the only medical school in the University of Puerto Rico System. It is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). Its students are predominantly Puerto Rican residents. However, anyone is allowed to apply to this university. It is also considered the top bilingual medical school in the world due to its requirement for each admitted student to fully master both English and Spanish.
William Bosworth Castle was an American physician and physiologist who transformed hematology from a "descriptive art to a dynamic interdisciplinary science."
Charles Wardell Stiles was an American parasitologist born in Spring Valley, New York. He was notable for working on a campaign against hookworm infestation in the American South, where it had been found to cause high rates of anemia, a debilitating disease.
The Office of Legislative Services of Puerto Rico was created on January 27, 1954 to provide research, translation, library and legislative drafting services to all members of the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly. Its duties are similar to those of the Congressional Research Service.
Cornelius Packard "Dusty" Rhoads was an American pathologist, oncologist, and hospital administrator who was involved in a racist scandal and subsequent whitewashing in the 1930s. Beginning in 1940, he served as director of Memorial Hospital for Cancer Research in New York, from 1945 was the first director of Sloan-Kettering Institute, and the first director of the combined Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center. For his contributions to cancer research, Rhoads was featured on the cover of the June 27, 1949 issue of Time magazine under the title "Cancer Fighter".
Dr. Enrique Pérez Santiago, MD was a Puerto Rican medical doctor. Born in Comerio, he was the first Puerto Rican hematologist and he began the formal program at the University of Puerto Rico Hospital.
Dr. Ramón M. Suárez Calderón (1895–1981) was a scientist, cardiologist, educator and hematologíst whose investigations led him to identify the proper and effective treatment of a specific disease known as tropical sprue. He also refined the protocols for numerous diagnostic procedures, such as electrocardiography and radioisotope, for the clinical identification and treatment of the disease which causes heart rheumatism.
Dr. Isaac González Martínez was the first Puerto Rican urologist, and a pioneer in the fight against cancer throughout the island. Dr. González Martínez conducted many investigations and experiments in parasitology, bilharzia, leprosy and typhoid fever. Dr. González Martínez and Dr. Bailey K. Ashford were the founders of the first commission in Puerto Rico to study the causes of anemia. In 1914, he was named director of the biological laboratory of the sanitation service of Puerto Rico. In 1935, Dr. González Martínez founded The Puerto Rican League against Cancer. He also promoted the construction of Puerto Rico's first hospital specializing in oncology.
Sila María González Calderón is a Puerto Rican attorney and former senator. She is the daughter of former Governor of Puerto Rico Sila Calderón, and served as her First Lady, along with her sister, María Elena. After that, she served as a member of the Senate of Puerto Rico from 2005 to 2013. She currently works as an attorney for the McConnell Valdés law firm.
Leopoldo Figueroa a.k.a. "The deacon of the Puerto Rican Legislature", was a Puerto Rican politician, journalist, medical doctor and lawyer. Figueroa, who began his political career as an advocate of Puerto Rican Independence, was the co-founder of the "Independence Association", one of three political organizations which merged to form the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Figueroa, had changed political ideals and in 1948, was a member of the Partido Estadista Puertorriqueño. That year, he was the only member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives who did not belong to the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD), and the only Representative to oppose the PPD's approval of what became known as the Ley de la Mordaza, which violated the civil rights of those who favored Puerto Rican Independence. On December 22, 2006, the Puerto Rican Legislature approved a law declaring every September 21, Leopoldo Figueroa Carreras Day.
Rafael López Nussa was a Puerto Rican physician and public servant. In 1916 López Nussa performed the first heart surgery operation in Puerto Rico.
Dr. Tom Douglas Spies was a distinguished American physician and medical educator. He was an authority in the study of nutritional diseases. In the 1930s, he contributed significantly to finding a cure for pellagra, a nutritional disease that once afflicted millions in the American South. Later, he also made a large contribution to finding cure for tropical sprue. For his efforts in elimination of pellagra, Time Magazine named him as 1938 "Man of the Year" in comprehensive science.
George C. Payne was an American tropical physician and director for the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation for Mexico and Trinidad in the 1920s. He also worked as a physician for the state health board in Virginia in 1923. He investigated hookworm disease between 1921 and 1934, and was known for studying the links between hookworm, tropical sprue and anemia in Trinidad, as well as Puerto Rico at the School of Tropical Medicine, where he worked with William Bosworth Castle and Cornelius P. Rhoads. In 1929 he published a study on effective footwear to reduce worm infestation. He became involved in the Rhoads scandal of the 1930s. He was the first to use a type of mosquito bait trap or stable trap in 1923 in the West Indies. He also studied diet and nutrition in Mexico from 1944 to 1948.
